SFO Employee Arrested in Connection With San Mateo Hit-and-Run Crash

A neighborhood security camera, a license plate, and an airport parking lot converged to put Oscar Gomez Florez in handcuffs Sunday after he allegedly struck an electric scooter rider in San Mateo and drove away without stopping.

The collision happened around 12:48 p.m. at Monte Diablo Avenue and N. San Mateo Drive in the city's North Central district. Officers from the San Mateo Police Department arrived to find a scooter rider on the ground with a 4-inch laceration to his head. The victim had not been wearing a helmet. A photo released by police showed him sitting upright as medics tended to his wound; beyond the laceration, police did not provide further details on his condition.

The vehicle that struck him did not stop. Officers pulled footage from a neighborhood security camera to get a description of the car and its direction of travel, then identified the license plate number, which led them to Florez, 60, a Foster City resident. When detectives went to his home, he was not there. Automated license plate readers confirmed the suspect vehicle had been in San Mateo at the time of the crash.

Detectives then learned Florez worked at San Francisco International Airport. An SMPD officer located his car parked in an employee lot at the airport. With assistance from the San Francisco Police Department Airport Bureau, officers tracked Florez down at his workplace and arrested him on a charge of felony hit-and-run resulting in injury. He was transported and booked into the San Mateo County Jail.

The investigation's trail from a single camera frame to an airport employee lot reflects a pattern San Mateo police have emphasized in similar cases. "As less people are using their cars as a means of transportation, that means more foot and bike traffic," police said in a statement following the arrest. "So, as drivers, we need to remember to stop, look left, look right, and look left again before proceeding.