BELLINGHAM, Wash. — First responders were dispatched about 8pm on Sunday, May 14th, to the intersection of the northbound I-5 on- and off-ramps and E Sunset Drive due to a report of an injury crash.
According to documents in Whatcom County Superior Court, Bellingham Police officers arrived to learn the suspect vehicle had exited I-5 via the off-ramp and ran the E Sunset Drive stop light at a high rate of speed. The suspect vehicle collided with the passenger side of the victim’s vehicle which had been eastbound on E Sunset Drive at the time. The victim suffered minor injuries.
Witnesses told officers that the suspect fled east in the vehicle immediately following the crash, again at a high rate of speed.
The suspect vehicle was located a short time later about 2.5 miles away and the driver, identified as Elijah Kalman Mozes, age 28 and of Custer, was arrested.
Mozes faces a felony charge of hit-and-run in a collision resulting in injury and a gross misdemeanor charge of reckless driving in Whatcom County Superior Court. He is also facing a driving under the influence charge in Bellingham Municipal Court.
Bail was set at $5,000 in Superior Court and $2,500 in Municipal Court. Mozes was released from custody in the Whatcom County Jail on May 14th after posting appearance bonds. He is scheduled to make a preliminary appearance in court on May 26th.