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On Tuesday, police arrested a man and charged him with manslaughter in a grisly June 21 collision that killed a well-known Mountain View resident.

Shortly before 9:30 a.m. that day, police say 21-year-old Mountain View resident Matthew Pumar sped through a red light, swerved to avoid a truck entering the intersection and lost control of his car. The vehicle jumped a curb, plowed through a pole, two trees and smashed into William Ware, killing the 50-year-old man before coming to rest near the intersection of California Street and Escuela Avenue, according to Liz Wylie, public information officer for the Mountain View Police Department.

Pumar turned himself in to officers at the Mountain View Police Department on July 10, Wylie said. Pumar was accompanied by his attorney and a bail bondsman. After he was arrested for one count of "vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence," Pumar immediately posted $100,000 bail and was released.

News of the arrest came as a relief to members of Ware's family who had expressed vexation that Pumar had not been arrested the day of the crash.

"I can't thank the Mountain View police and the community enough for all the help," said Dolores Marquez, Ware's niece. "It was really hard to be patient."

During that time police collected the evidence they needed to make the July 10 arrest, Wylie said. That included gathering witness statements and evaluating the distance the car traveled and objects it knocked over, as well as the damage it did to the late Ware's body.

"Although the investigation has not yet been completed, enough evidence existed to show that Pumar ran the red light at that intersection and was speeding," Wylie wrote in an MVPD press release. "Ware was standing on the sidewalk. The primary cause of the collision was reckless driving. Drugs and alcohol were not a factor."

If convicted, Pumar could be sentenced to up to six years in a state prison, according to Cindy Hendrickson, supervising deputy district attorney for Santa Clara County.

Court proceedings will begin in about two weeks, Hendrickson said, estimating that Pumar will likely be arraigned sometime around July 24 at the Palo Alto Courthouse. A prosecutor has yet to be assigned to the case.

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