The family of Shawn O’Donnell, who was born and raised in Danville, is grieving her death last week on the other side of the country.
“She managed to come out of India during COVID, and she gets hit by a truck on her bike in a blind spot,” her mother, Danville resident Mary O’Donnell, told the Weekly in an interview.
Shawn O’Donnell, 40, was identified as the bicyclist who was struck and killed by a truck in Washington, D.C. shortly after 8 a.m. July 20. The news was first reported by the Washington Post early the next day.
According to the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), a preliminary investigation into the collision in the northwest part of the nation’s capital confirmed that she had been traveling in the same direction as a Mack truck on its right side when she was struck as the truck made a right-hand turn.
“The bicyclist attempted to ride ahead of the Mack truck and was struck by the front passenger side of the truck, causing significant injuries,” MPD officials said in a statement.
Detectives were still investigating the circumstances of Shawn O’Donnell’s death as of press time.
Mary O’Donnell characterized her daughter as a “woman of service, always thinking of others.” She said this was what had brought her daughter to work and live on the other side of the country while working as a diplomat with the U.S. Department of State.
“Thirty minutes after the truck hit her, and she was dead — a girl who I carried under my heart for nine months, and I carried in my heart for 40 years, and now that part of my heart will never be fixed,” Mary O’Donnell said. “It’s just gone.”
Although Shawn O’Donnell’s academic and career trajectory took her around the world and saw her living thousands of miles away from her mother during her work with the state department, Mary O’Donnell noted that her roots were here in the San Ramon Valley.
“She was born in Kaiser Walnut Creek,” Mary O’Donnell said. “Her whole life has been here. She didn’t really leave this area until she went to Spain.”
After studying abroad in Spain, Shawn O’Donnell returned to the Bay Area to attend U.C. Berkeley, where she studied history and Middle Eastern studies and was on the crew team. She went on to earn a Masters of Public Policy from the University of Minnesota before several immersion programs in Arabic.
“The country really lost someone who gave herself all the time,” Mary O’Donnell said. “All her time was in service to others.”
Shawn O’Donnell had worked as an account manager at Google for two years after graduating from UC Berkeley. Her mother said that while Shawn O’Donnell had enjoyed her job with the company, she had left and ultimately gone to Washington D.C. out of a desire to have more of an impact on the world.
She went on to work as a strategist at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, then for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, before landing at the state department as a foreign service officer in 2019.
Given the timing and location of the collision, it appears that Shawn O’Donnell was commuting to work at the time of her death.
“It’s more than I can bear,” Mary O’Donnell said. “In the military, like I was … you sign up to be in harm’s way. We sign up to try to be green, by riding a bicycle, and now she will have no physical presence ever again. No one can ever fix that.”
Mary O’Donnell, who served 41 years in the U.S. Coast Guard, said her daughter had followed in those footsteps in serving the country via her own route — and the two having always shared a close bond.
Despite being in the throes of shock and grief at the loss of her child last week, Mary O’Donnell said that she was taking the opportunity to speak to the media out of a desire for action from state and local officials that would promote safety for bicyclists and prevent future deaths.
“I’m talking to reporters because I don’t want Shawn’s death to be yesterday’s news,” Mary O’Donnell said. “I consider these murders, not accidents. But maybe if there’s enough focus on this, they’ll say trucks can’t make a right turn on red.”
Mary O’Donnell said that she hoped to see charges brought against the driver who’d struck her daughter, upon the completion of a full investigation by police. She added that she hoped enforcing penalties for pedestrian and bicyclist deaths could guide policy change that would address the dangers posed by vehicular collisions, at the local and national level.
“She was just a light,” Mary O’Donnell said. “She was a bit of laughter, and a bright light who had so much more to live for and so much more to give, and it was stolen because people with huge cars, huge trucks … in this case they’re no different from a drunk driver, but we treat the drunk drivers and people who have blind spots differently. They both took somebody’s life because of their carelessness, because of their responsibility.”
— Jeanita Lyman
In other news
* Prosecutors have charged Livermore resident Roger Garcia Aleman with murder and eight other felony counts, as well as a slew of special allegations, in connection with the deadly shooting at Granada Bowl earlier this month.The documents filed by the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office include a narrative by an initial police investigator who describes what she saw in video surveillance footage of the bowling alley’s bar that night, revealing new details such as that Aleman allegedly tried to drag his injured friend out of the bar at first and kept shooting as he was fleeing the scene.
The criminal complaint submitted to the court last Friday also lists attempted murder and assault with a semiautomatic firearm charges as it pertains to three surviving victims, whereas Livermore police initially cited two men who were shot and survived. The nature of injuries, if any, for the third living victim have not been specified.
Aleman — whom police originally identified as Roger Aleman Garcia — was arraigned on Friday and remains in custody at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin. It is not immediately clear whether he is represented by an attorney yet.
Aleman, 27, was arrested in Lathrop early in the morning on July 20, more than three days after police allege he killed Antonio Vargas and injured others after an argument in the bar escalated into gunfire on the evening of July 16 at the bowling alley in Livermore. Vargas, 28, was pronounced dead at the scene.
According to video footage, Aleman arrived at the bowling alley with three people around 5 p.m. July 16 and played pool inside the bar, Livermore police Det. Jennifer Bloom wrote in a probable cause declaration filed with the Alameda County Superior Court.
About an hour later, Aleman appeared to make a comment directed toward Vargas’ friend, which prompted the two to leave their group and approach the pool table, Bloom said. A fight then broke out between the two groups.
“Victim #1 (Vargas) approached Aleman. Aleman retrieved a black firearm from his waistband and pointed it at Victim #1,” Bloom wrote. “Victim #1 continued to walk toward Aleman. Aleman shot Victim #1, causing him to fall to the ground. Aleman then began to shoot towards the pool table where Victim #2 and Victim #3 were physically punching each other.”
Vargas, who sustained at least one gunshot wound to his torso, died at the scene, according to the detective.
The initial gunfire toward the pool table hit Aleman’s friend in the torso. The detective alleged that Aleman attempted to drag his injured friend out of the bar with him, and as he was walking into the hallway, he continued to shoot and struck Vargas’ friend in the leg, causing him to fall.
Aleman ran out of the bowling alley and fled the area, according to police. He remained at-large until police developed information about his whereabouts on July 19, ultimately arresting him just after 1 a.m. July 20 in Lathrop on suspicion of murder and other charges.
The DA’s office filed formal charges against Aleman last Friday.
The nine felony counts include first-degree murder for Vargas’ death, attempted murder and assault with a semiautomatic firearm related to each of three surviving victims, discharging a firearm with gross negligence and illegal possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
Aleman also faces a handful of special allegations and potential prison term enhancements related to the felonies, including gun use, great violence or bodily harm, serious violent conduct and — which are listed as felony assault with a firearm (2013 conviction) and illegal gun possession (2018 conviction).
— Jeremy Walsh
* Two Tri-Valley men were among those arrested Monday on insider trading charges for activities that allegedly saw them generate more than $5 million in illegal profits alongside others involved in the scheme.
San Ramon resident Amit Bhardwaj was arrested Monday morning on seven counts of securities fraud and two counts of wire fraud, along with one count each of conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud and conspiracy to obstruct justice, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Pleasanton resident Srinivasa Kakkera was also arrested Monday morning, on one count of securities fraud and one count of wire fraud, as well as the same conspiracy charges as Bhardwaj, federal prosecutors said.
According to charges filed by the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission, Bhardwaj allegedly used material, nonpublic information he learned as chief information security officer at the San Jose-based company Lumentum Holdings Inc. to tip off friends, including Kakkera, about Lumentum’s plans to acquire two other companies. Parallel criminal charges have been filed for each of the SEC’s enforcement actions in a New York court.
Ahead of Lumentum’s acquisition of Santa Clara-based Coherent Inc., which was announced in early 2021, and of San Jose-based NeoPhotonics, which was announced last November, Bhardwaj allegedly told insiders including Kakkera about the company’s plans, leading them to purchase shares in both companies before the information was made public.
Authorities allege Bhardwaj learned of the Coherent acquisition in December 2020, and purchased stocks in the company himself as well as tipped off two friends and a close relative.
One friend, Dhirenkumar Patel, allegedly agreed to give Bhardwaj 50% of profits from trading based on the nonpublic information. Patel, Bhardwaj and his other two associates closed out on their shares in Coherent following the announcement of the acquisition, for a collective profit of nearly $900,000, according to prosecutors.
Authorities allege Bhardwaj learned of confidential discussions at Lumentum to acquire NeoPhotonics in October, and tipped off Kakkera along with two other friends — Abbas Saeedi of Fremont and Ramesh Chitor — leading all to trade in NeoPhotonics securities, with Chitor agreeing to split profits with Bhardwaj. When the company’s stock price increased following the announcement of its acquisition by Lumentum in November, the four allegedly closed out for approximately $4.3 million in profits.
While Patel and Chitor separately pleaded guilty to charges for their involvement in the scheme, prosecutors allege Bhardwaj, Kakkera and Saeedi allegedly “took steps to obstruct the federal investigation of their conduct” following an FBI interview in March.
On the day of the interviews, Bhardwaj allegedly met with Kakkera, Saeedi and Patel in person on several occasions for conversations about “potential false stories that would conceal their insider trading scheme, as well as creating false documents to buttress lies regarding payments that were, in reality, related to the insider trading scheme,” as well as to wipe evidence from Bhardwaj’s laptop, prosecutors said.
Bhardwaj, Kakkera, and Saeedi were among the nine defendants arrested in connection with three separate insider trading cases brought on by findings from the SEC’s Enforcement Division’s Market Abuse Unit’s (MAU) Analysis and Detection Center, which monitors for suspicious trading patterns using data analysis.
— Jeanita Lyman
