SAN DIEGO — The City of San Diego has agreed to pay more than $6 million to the family of a mother and daughter killed during a high-profile deadly wrong-way crash on Interstate 805 in 2018.
The Pizarro family reached a $6.125 million settlement with the City of San Diego after suing to hold the city responsible for the death of their loved ones, Aileen and Aryana Pizarro.
Aileen and Aryana were killed by former YouTube star Trevor Heitmann, 18, also known as “McSkillet”, who drove his McLaren at speeds over 100 miles per hour in the wrong direction in 2018, striking the SUV occupied by Aileen and her daughter.
The Pizarro family alleged San Diego Police Department officers failed to intervene and assess Heitmann before the deadly wrong-way crash on I-805 at Carrol Canyon.
Miguel Pizarro, father of Aileen, will receive $4.25 million from the city. Angelo Pizarro, son of Aileen, will receive $1.875 million as part of the settlement.
The San Diego City Council will give final approval of the settlements during its Jan. 23 meeting.
Five-year fight
In 2023, CBS 8 spoke to Angelo Pizarro after a Superior Court judge ruled the lawsuit against the city must go to trial.
"The city can't get away with this. The cops who allowed this to happen, can't get away with this and we should not have had five years of fighting this fight," said 24-year-old Angelo Pizarro, whose mom Aileen, and sister, Aryana, died in the crash.
Angelo fought for more than five years to hold the city accountable.
"During those five years, the city council denied settling when they knew that they were in the wrong. It just shouldn't happen again to anybody," Pizarro told CBS 8 in September 2023. "For me, it's not about the money, I don't care about the money. I don't care about being on the news. I just want this to never happen again. This should never happen again."
In September 2023, a judge denied the city's motion to dismiss the case on reason that police officers do not have a duty to intervene in mental health calls.
Body camera footage
Police body camera video showed police arriving at the Heitmann family’s Carmen Valley home on Aug. 23, 2018.
During the interaction with police, Heitmann’s neighbor and psychiatrist alerted police to the danger of Heitmann’s mental state, according to lawsuits filed by the Pizarro and Heitmann families, telling police that Heitmann was a danger to himself and others.
In 2019, the Pizarro and Heitmann families sued the city of the police officers’ refusal to assess Heitmann's mental health and their failure to call the Psychiatric Emergency Response Team.
Both families sued the city for negligence, claiming officers failed to act on warnings from his family and psychiatrist as well as for not interviewing Heitmann to assess his condition.
The families said the officers had a mandatory duty to assess Heitmann.
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