Bay Area police chief charged with hit-and-run on family’s car along highway

A Bay Area police chief is facing hit-and-run charges after she allegedly sideswiped a family’s vehicle on the highway before driving off, later insisting she was dealing with a possible medical emergency.

The Alameda County District Attorney announced charges this week against San Leandro Police Chief Angela Averiett, who was placed on administrative leave Wednesday after speaking publicly about the incident and defending her actions.

“I am aware that a misdemeanor charge has been filed related to a traffic incident that occurred in May of 2025,” she said during a press conference. “I was driving an unmarked police vehicle on Interstate 580 when contact was allegedly made with another vehicle. The CHP responded, investigated, and did not find cause to issue a citation.”

Averiett also claimed she did not knowingly leave the crash scene on Interstate 580 in Dublin because the reported damage was so “minimal.”

According to her account, she had been returning home from a city council meeting when she believed she was experiencing a “medical emergency.”

She said she activated police lights on her department-issued Jeep and exited the highway after feeling chest pains.

Authorities said Averiett clipped a vehicle while driving in the center median area.

California Highway Patrol officers later investigated the collision. Averiett reportedly told officers she had chest pains that later subsided.

CHP investigators ultimately declined to pursue hit-and-run charges at the time, citing Averiett’s claim that she was unaware any collision had occurred despite damage found on both vehicles.

The driver of the other vehicle, Daffani Ryan, had been traveling home from a San Francisco Giants game with her husband and two children when the crash occurred, according to ABC 7.

Ryan immediately called 911 after the collision.

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The controversy deepened after Ryan alleged that a San Leandro police lieutenant later contacted her and offered to pay for the vehicle damage if she chose not to report the incident.

The officer identified in that claim was Antwinette Turner, who now serves as a deputy chief with Bay Area Rapid Transit.

The crash has since become part of a broader internal dispute within the San Leandro Police Department.

Earlier this year, Sgt. Mike Olivera filed a nine-page complaint accusing Averiett of a “troubling pattern of lack of accountability, selective enforcement and concealment of violations.”

Mike Rains, an attorney representing the San Leandro Police Officers’ Association, told ABC 7 he believes the chief received preferential treatment.

Union officials say morale inside the department has suffered as officers question whether rank-and-file cops would have been treated the same way.

Averiett has worked in Bay Area law enforcement since 2001 and previously served with the Hayward Police Department and BART Police.