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Suspect accused of sending multiple teens video of fatal hit-and-run

Updated October 17, 2023 - 6:49 pm

A teenager testified to a grand jury that he was threatened at school over a video showing two other teens intentionally mowing down a retired police chief in an August fatal hit-and-run.

Jesus Ayala, 18, and Jzamir Keys, 16, have been charged with murder and multiple other counts in connection with the killing of 66-year-old Andreas Probst. Keys is accused of filming a disturbing video of the two laughing as Ayala intentionally hits Probst as he was riding his bicycle on Aug. 14 on Tenaya Way, near Centennial Parkway.

Police investigating the killing were told of the video by school resources officers and eventually obtained multiple videos from a teenager’s phone. The teenager said that Keys sent him and multiple other students the videos through Instagram messages, according to transcripts of a grand jury hearing that were filed on Tuesday.

The teenager said that after police took his phone, another student from Shadow Ridge High School came up to him and said, “It’s going to be bad for you,” according to the transcripts.

Keys and Ayala were indicted earlier this month on charges of murder, attempted murder, failing to stop at the scene of a crash, battery, residential burglary, grand larceny of a vehicle and possession of a stolen vehicle. Ayala also faces an additional count of possession of burglary tools, court records show. They have both pleaded not guilty.

They are also accused of filming themselves intentionally hitting a 72-year-old man riding his bicycle earlier that morning, and hitting another vehicle minutes before ramming into Probst, police have said. The driver of the vehicle that was hit said two people in a black Hyundai pulled up next to him before ramming into his back bumper. He said he recognized the driver because he kept adjusting a mask he was wearing.

“He kept pulling it down kind of like taunting me up and down, up and down, up and down, so I kept looking at him,” the man testified to the grand jury.

Throughout the course of the crime spree on Aug. 14, Ayala and Keys were also accused of stealing multiple vehicles. Three people testified to the grand jury that they noticed their cars, all Hyundai vehicles, were missing the morning of Aug. 14.

Multiple people also testified to seeing the aftermath of Probst being hit and watching the Hyundai speed away. Probst, who was a retired police chief from Bell, California, who had 35 years of law enforcement experience, was pronounced dead at University Medical Center.

Both teens are set to appear in court again on Oct. 24.

Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240.

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