Los Angeles police arrested John Anthony Cardenas in the hit-and-run that killed 83-year-old Akil Saud Batani-Khalfani.

Tuesday is the arrest. Sept. 30 is the crash. CBS Los Angeles and MyNewsLA agree on Cardenas's name and age, the Carson arrest, a search warrant at his home, an impounded vehicle, the dark blue sedan, and $1 million bail. They do not agree on how to spell the man who was killed, or on whether officers were called at 8:45 p.m. or 8:43 p.m. MyNewsLA added that he was outside a marked crosswalk. Neither story reported a plea or a next court date.

Los Angeles police on Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026, arrested John Anthony Cardenas, 29, in the hit-and-run that killed Akil Saud Batani-Khalfani, CBS Los Angeles reported, citing an LAPD release shared that day. MyNewsLA reported the same arrest, the same age, and the same Tuesday, also citing the department. Both reported that Central Traffic Division detectives took him into custody near his workplace in Carson, then served a search warrant at his home and impounded a vehicle they say was involved in the crash. CBS Los Angeles reported he was booked on suspicion of hit-and-run resulting in death and held in lieu of $1 million bail. MyNewsLA reported he was booked at the Los Angeles Metropolitan Detention Center on suspicion of felony hit-and-run resulting in death, and that bail was set at $1 million. A booking on suspicion is the arrest. It is the start of the case.

The crash was three weeks earlier. CBS Los Angeles reported officers were called at about 8:45 p.m. on Sept. 30 to the intersection of 69th Street and South Central Avenue for a crash involving a pedestrian. The station reported Batani-Khalfani, 83, was walking across the street when a dark blue four-door sedan driving through the intersection struck him. MyNewsLA reported the call at about 8:43 p.m. near Central Avenue and 69th Street, and reported the sedan was traveling southbound on Central while he walked eastbound outside a marked crosswalk. Both reported Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene, and both reported the driver left without stopping to help. Two minutes, and a crosswalk detail that only MyNewsLA printed, are the split in the scene account. The name is also split. CBS Los Angeles spells him Akil Saud Batani-Khalfani and reported that loved ones knew him as Bird. MyNewsLA spells him Akil Saud Batanikhalfani and did not report a nickname.

CBS Los Angeles reported who he was to the neighborhood, which is separate from who police booked. The station reported he had lived in the area since the 1940s, that people held a vigil after he was killed, and that he left 15 children. It quoted his daughter, D'ixara Batani-Khalfani: "For him to be taken from, you know, what he wanted; he wanted to die in his home, and that would've been okay with me," and, "But for him to be taken from out on these streets? That's not okay. Not okay with me at all." The station reported Mayor Karen Bass called him a community leader, historian, author, and neighborhood advocate, and quoted her saying, "His loss is felt deeply by his family and the many people whose lives he touched," and, "My heart is with his children, grandchildren, and loved ones as they mourn this devastating loss." MyNewsLA did not publish the daughter's remarks or the mayor's statement. A family account of the man who died, and a mayor's statement, do not identify the driver.

Both outlets reported the investigation was still open after the booking. CBS Los Angeles reported anyone with information was asked to contact Central Traffic Division Investigator A. Leon. MyNewsLA published the same investigator's name. Neither reported a court date, a plea, or a filing by the Los Angeles County district attorney past the booking itself. The $1 million figure is the bail both said was set on the hit-and-run count. It is not a sentence. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.