The DUI suspect in a deadly hit
and run case that killed a beloved
bartender was in court today,
details in a live report.
Plus, San Diego police are
investigating a second sexual assault
near the San Diego State campus.
Mexico is making history.
Their next president will be a woman.
The city of San Diego files a lawsuit
against SeaWorld for unpaid rent.
How much you're looking for and
how the theme park is responding.
CBS8 News Live at six starts right now.
The man who police say hit and killed a
local beloved bartender and then drove
off pleaded not guilty in court today.
Good evening and thanks so much
for joining us. I'm Marcella Lee.
I'm Carlo Chichetta.
Police say 37 year old Brandon Janik
was driving drunk when he hit and
killed 47 year old Josh Gilliland
as he was crossing the street.
Gilliland was on his way to work at Cheers,
a bar on Adams Ave.
in University Heights.
CBS8's Kirsten Holmes was inside the
courtroom during the irraignment.
She joins us now live with details on
the emotional day in court. Kirsten.
Yeah, Josh Gilliland,
was hit and killed by a drunk hit and
run driver back in June of this year.
Nearly three months later,
police arrested their suspect,
Brendan Janik of San Diego.
Now, amazingly in all of this,
Josh's friends and coworkers
say they forgive Brent.
And despite their heartfelt loss,
because Josh was such a good person,
his love will continue to live
on through their forgiveness.
Even though his life was taken too soon.
He was just
a sweet, gentle, kind soul.
Lisa Cogan was Josh's friend.
She says in times like this,
forgiveness is key. I
forgive Brandon.
I met his exwife and his daughter
today and we hugged and they kept
apologizing and saying sorry.
It's just our friendly loss,
but there's so many people that
this is a loss in tragedy for
not just for Josh and his family
and the people that love him,
but for Brandon's family
and his daughters that
Lisa describes. The night
Josh was killed. There
was some good Samaritans that
that saw this car in the road and
they called 911 and unfortunately
no units were able to come.
And so paramedics and firemen were called.
They realized the guy was drunk,
told him not to drive,
and once the emergency service people left,
he got back in his car.
So this was something that
was completely preventable,
that everybody was endeared
to him for good reason.
You know, we could serve one drink,
and by the end of that,
he was your best friend.
Mickey Deguia was Josh's coworker
at Cheers, the bar where Josh
worked for more than 20 years.
He was goofy. He was genuine.
He didn't forget people.
He actually called.
He told people he loved them.
Josh I Many of us were bartenders.
We actually do what we can prevent
things like this happening.
She has a message for drivers
who think about getting behind
the wheel after a drink. If
you're drinking and driving every day
and you find that you're able to get
away with it more times than you can't,
how lucky have you been?
And maybe you want to think otherwise,
because what's happening to
Brandon and his family isn't fair,
but it's what he did and
tried to get away with it.
Josh's friends say that his spirit
will live on through their forgiveness.
Brendan Genics next court
date is set for October 25th,
reporting live for CBS8.
I'm Kirsten Holmes. Back to
you. Thank you, Kirsten.
Right now, the Sheriff's Department
is asking for help finding a pair of
burglars that broke into a baskin-robbins
in San Marcos twice in one week.
You can see two intruders on your
screen breaking into the Nordall Rd.
store on July 14th.
After getting through a combination lock box,
we're told they stole $120.00 in cash.
But then on July 17th the Sheriff's
Department says the two came back
breaking the glass front door to get in.
This time they got around $1500.
Anyone with information is asked
to call San Diego Crime Stoppers
tonight. We're learning new details
about the man who was stabbed
to death in the parking lot of
McDonald's restaurant on Midway Drive.
Police say 44 year old Joshua Goodman
was riding his bike in the parking
lot last week when a suspect got
out of a light colored minivan,
chased Goodman and stabbed him.
Investigators say the attacker then took
off in the minivan with a woman driving.
Goodman was taken to a hospital
where he died.
Police are still looking for the suspects.
They do believe that the suspect
and victim knew each other.
Governor Gavin Newsom is deploying
more California National Guard
service members to our border to
try and stop fentanyl and other
drugs from coming into the US.
The number of service members will
jump from 40 to 60 at ports of entry,
including Santa Sedra and Otay Mesa.
So far, the California National
Guard has helped seize almost
£12,000 of fentanyl this year.
The governor's office says.
A past Guard expansion led to a
nearly 600% increase in seizures
across the state last year.
The governor did not say when the
guard members will be at the border
tonight. A San Diego City Council member
is working to stiffen penalties for people
caught distributing hate speech Flyers.
San Diego police tell us since July,
there have been at least 8 incidents of
antisemitic Flyers littering neighborhoods.
Council member Raul Campeo,
who says he's seen some
of the Flyers himself,
is working on legislation that
would make littering A misdemeanor.
That means distributing hate speech
Flyers would be punishable by
fines and up to a year in jail.
Tonight, police are looking for a suspect
or suspects in two separate sexual
assaults near San Diego State last month.
Both attacks happened after the young
women had called for rideshare vehicles.
As CBS8's David Godferson reports,
detectives say both incidents have
similarities and they're looking for
surveillance video from the neighborhood.
This was the scene in the 5000
block of Rockford Drive on the
evening of August 18th and into the
early morning hours of August 19th,
captured by a neighbor's surveillance camera.
It was the weekend before the first day
of classes at San Diego State University,
and neighbors say the streets were crowded.
The sororities have had pretty big parties.
Just yesterday there was a big
one in the sorority behind us,
and I think there's a live band over
there and they were just raging
between midnight and 2:00 AM on August 19th.
Two young women said they were picked up by
what they thought was a rideshare driver.
One of them says she was sexually
assaulted inside the vehicle and
her friend witnessed the attack
before the driver let them both out.
Neighbors tell me police have been
knocking on doors on Rockford Drive
looking for video of the two women
who were apparently sitting on the
curb waiting for the rideshare.
In this situation, you know,
when when a driver pulls up and
the girl thinks it's her Uber and
she gets in it, what's a cop to do?
I mean, the cop doesn't know at
that time that the girls not safe.
The very next weekend,
around 2:00 AM on August 27th,
a second woman says she was picked
up in a residential area South of
San Diego State by who she thought
was a rideshare driver and sexually
assaulted inside the vehicle.
She was then dropped off at
70th Street near Syranac.
SDSU students say they are scared.
It's really disappointing for sure
that this keeps happening. Not
good. It's been 3 weeks and
there's already been two cases.
That's not good. Police
put out a suspect description,
A man in his 20s, possibly Hispanic,
with a heavy accent that was difficult
to understand, 5 foot, 8 inches tall,
poofy hair driving a dark colored sedan.
These students are so young.
For a lot of them, it's the first
time they went away to college and
they just they just don't know.
Police are urging students to be
safe when ordering a rideshare.
Confirm the license plate and make and
model of the car before getting in.
And when the driver shows up,
ask him a simple question.
Who are you here to pick up?
He should be able to identify the
passenger at San Diego State.
David Goffertson, CBS8
Thanks David. Tonight,
San Diego nurses are warning
Kaiser Permanente that in 10
days they plan to pick it.
The nurses gave hospital leaders
the 10 day notice this morning.
The nurses we spoke to today say they
want to spread awareness about what
they believe are unsafe staffing
issues at the Kaiser hospitals.
Some of the nurses believe that
the staffing issues were made
worse after Kaiser opened a new
hospital in San Marcos last month.
They say it's spread staff even thinner
and that they warned hospital leaders
before the opening but were ignored.
Meantime, CBS8 reached out to
Kaiser Permanente about the picket.
They sent us a statement saying they
received a notification and that quote.
It's important for our members and
patients to know that informational
picketing is not a strike and does not
impact our care delivery or operations,
which will continue as normal.
It's looking like Mexico will have its
first female president come next year.
Last night, Mexico's ruling
party selected former Mexico City
Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum to oppose
female engineer Social Galvez.
CBS8's Abby Black is live
in the East Village tonight,
where there's a political discussion in
happening right now about the race. Abby
Marcela We are at UC San
Diego's Park and Market and
let's show you Right now there
are 200 people that have crowded
the auditorium to hear from a
Mexican political journalist,
former Baja and Mexico's electoral
leaders and educators about Mexico's
historical presidential election.
This event is hosted by
Cities University Audit,
UC San Diego in an effort to
better understand Mexico's
political landscape and outlook.
Mexico is making political history. It
doesn't matter what happened next
October 2024, we're going to have the
first woman as president of Mexico,
which I believe is wonderful. Finally,
last night Mexico's current governing
party selected former Mexico City Mayor
Claudia Sheinbaum as their candidate
official face off against Senator Zocio
Galvez in the June presidential election.
UC San Diego's director of US Mexican
Studies Rafael Fernandez de Castro says
there's a lot of work to do to get out
the vote in a country that still has
the famously intense machismo effect.
I hope Mexicans will get very excited,
so hopefully we'll have a lot of
turn around the day of the election.
UC San Diego's Center for Mexican
Studies is Co hosting a discussion
tonight to better understand the
country's presidential election and
its implications on US relations
in the next 12 years. Will will have
an enormous possibility to improve the
relationship between the US and Mexico.
While both candidates lean
socially progressive,
climate change will be top of mind,
and so will immigration.
Fernandez de Castro says both candidates
are already ahead and strengthening
its relationship with the US.
Both of them speak English,
which is very important. Lopez oral.
He doesn't speak in English.
That really makes a difference.
But he warns the strength of
that relationship could depend
on the outcome of the 2024 U.S.
presidential election.
But I believe that we should really
cooperate and don't follow the Republican
rhetoric about seeing Mexico as the enemy.
Not only are these women making
political history in Mexico,
but this will be an historical
relationship with the US.
Believe Mexico and the US have
an enormous possibility to better
integrate economically speaking.
And that would really increase the
well-being of Mexicans and of Americans.
With no expected changes,
Mexican voters will go to the
polls on June 1st to elect their
first female president, Marcella.
Thanks Abby. A major traffic alert
sections of the five that run over the
163 and through downtown will close for
emergency repairs twice this month.
Here's a map for you so you can
see what we're talking about.
Starting tomorrow night at 9:00 PM, Friday,
September 8th through Monday the 11th,
the southbound lanes and red
right there of Interstate 5 will
be closed from Interstate 8.
Then two weeks later on September
29th through October 2nd,
the northbound lanes will close again
Friday to Monday 9:00 PM to 5:00 AM.
This is of course going to have a
big impact on traffic through the
downtown area those two weekends.
You can use alternative routes
like the 805 or 163 and make sure
you leave some extra time to
get to where you need to be
tonight. More than 430,000 postcards
have been mailed out to registered
voters in San Diego County for the
November 7th special election.
Voters in the 4th district will
vote to fill the vacant supervisor
seat for the remainder of the term.
At the same time, residents in Fallbrook
and Rainbow will vote on whether or not
to exit the County Water Authority.
Everyone should expect to receive a
ballot by the week of October 8th.
Still
had tonight the fight to save
pine trees growing in Coronado.
And a former
Trump adviser was just convicted
of contempt of Congress. Why?
He's now seeking A mistrial.
Plus, the school district in Southern
California is considering a policy
that would tell parents if their
child changes their gender identity.
Temperatures were
a little bit warmer for today.
We're talking about
a warm up by this weekend.
Also, high surf set to return.
We're going to cool off by
next week. Your complete
forecast is coming up.