California Police Chief Charged With Hit-and-Run After Allegedly Leaving Scene of Freeway Crash

San Leandro Police Chief Angela Averiett has been placed on paid administrative leave after prosecutors charged her with misdemeanor hit-and-run in connection with an off-duty crash in May 2025 on Interstate 580. The charge was announced on May 13 by Alameda County District Attorney Ursula Jones Dickson. Averiett is scheduled to be arraigned on June 18, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

The crash happened near Dublin at about 11 p.m. Daffani Ryan was driving home with her husband and two children after attending a San Francisco Giants game when her vehicle was struck.

Ryan told investigators she was traveling in the lane through a construction zone, with traffic moving between 45 and 50 mph. She said a silver Jeep was driving on the shoulder, entered her lane, and clipped the driver's side mirror of her car.

“It woke up both my kids instantly,” Ryan said in an earlier interview with ABC7 Eyewitness News. “ My four-year-old, when kids sleep, they’re sleeping.”

Ryan also claimed the Jeep had Police lights flashing in the rear window. She further said that after the accident, the driver switched off the vehicle’s lights, crossed four lanes, and exited the freeway.

Her husband got the license plate number and investigators later used it to trace the vehicle to an unmarked San Leandro Police Department vehicle assigned to Averiett.

Averiett has denied the allegations that she knowingly left the scene and said she did not realize she had made contact with another vehicle.

“Given the minimal nature of the reported damage, a small scratch on the other vehicle's side mirror, I had no indication at the time that any contact may have occurred,” Averiett said.

According to investigators, she told the California Highway Patrol (CHP) that she had been driving home when she was struck in construction traffic and began experiencing chest pain. She said she wanted to expedite her return home and began driving in the center median.

Investigators asked whether she sought medical treatment afterward. Averiett said she did not go to the hospital because the chest pain stopped after she exited the freeway. She also told investigators she did not remember hearing any sound from the collision.

However, Ryan rejected that explanation. She said, "There's no way in hell that you did not hear our mirrors hit," she said. "You could do a test drive, two cars going, one going 55, one going 65, and hit mirrors and tell me you don't hear anything. Do a suburban and a Jeep. You'll hear it, I promise."

Investigators said damage to both vehicles appeared consistent with the reported crash. The CHP had initially declined to file charges after Averiett stated that she did not know of the reported hit-and-run.