The U.S. Navy slapped a drinking ban on sailors stationed in Japan on Monday and halted off-base liberty after police arrested a U.S. sailor on the southern island of Okinawa on suspicion of drunk driving following a car crash that injured two people, NBC News reported. 

"For decades we have enjoyed a strong relationship with the people of Japan. It is imperative that each sailor understand how our actions affect that relationship and the U.S.-Japan alliance as a whole," Rear Adm. Matthew Carter, commander of U.S. naval forces in Japan, said in a statement Monday.

The United States has 18,600 sailors stationed in Japan.

The ban follows the arrest late Saturday of Petty Officer 2nd Class Aimee Mejia, 21, who is assigned to Kadena Air Base on Okinawa. Mejia drove the wrong way on a freeway and crashed into two vehicles late Saturday, a police spokesman said.

The U.S. Supreme Court heads into the final month of its term with decisions yet to come on such divisive issues as immigration, abortion, and affirmative action.

Those cases could produce major rulings affecting millions of people. But with just eight justices now on the bench, some could end in a modest decision or fizzle out in a four-four tie. 

A tie vote would change nothing. It would leave lower court rulings in place, and it would not set any precedent. As a legal matter, it would be as though the Supreme Court never took the case.

After Gilbert Camacho finished the Rock and Roll marathon Sunday he decided to go the long haul and propose to his girlfriend Stacie Cruz.

He clocked a personal best for the race and used the extra confidence to pop the question.

Camacho's friends said he was nervous, not only to propose, but also because he had just recovered from an injury.

In front of family and friends – and marathon finishers – Camacho asked the girl he’d known since middle school to be his wife.

"Spectators all stopped to cheer and congratulate [them]," Camacho's friend Thomas Hawkes said. "We all celebrated afterwards at the Gaslamp. We could not be more excited for them, and we look forward to seeing their love flourish."

Although Camacho and Cruz met in school they just reunited in December.

When Alex Valadez Jr. walked into his kindergarten graduation Friday, he did so with dozens of Chicago police officers by his side — and one watching over him from up above.

Alex’s father, Officer Alejandro Valadez Sr., was killed in the line of duty in 2009, just three months before his son was born.

With his father unable to cheer Alex on as he reached a major milestone in his young life, officers took it upon themselves to prove to Alex he will always be family, and to make the ceremony at Anunciata Elementary School one the young boy would never forget.

"Sometimes we have to make the ultimate sacrifice," said police Supt. Eddie Johnson. "Alejandro did that. We want everyone to know we will never forget; we will never, ever forget."

Valadez Sr., 27, was investigating a report of shots fired in the city’s West Englewood neighborhood when he was shot and killed by gang members.

Officers held Alex’s hand, hugged him and congratulated him as his father would have done. Mounted police, SWAT officers and even fire department crews were there to support him.

Some flew above the ceremony in a helicopter, watching from above as they believe his father does now.

They even surprised him with a big graduation present: a new bike.

"It’s been really cool," said Alex’s mom, Christina, who said she was grateful for all the support the department has given her family.

Despite the family's loss, a smile stretched across Alex's face as he marked the big achievement. 

His father's partner, Tom Vargas, was there the day Valadez was killed. Vargas stood by Alex’s side during graduation, calling the moment a bittersweet one.

"He’s with us," Vargas said of Valadez. "He’s with us all."

A firefighter was injured battling a nearly 140-acre fire that sparked Saturday near Interstate 15 in Riverside County.

The fire broke out before noon Saturday in unincorporated Temecula and sent heavy smoke into the air in San Diego's North County.

The latest update from Cal Fire reports the fire as 65 percent contained as of Sunday evening.

While fighting the blaze, one firefighter suffered minor injuries, according to the agency. 

Authorities initially issued a SigAlert, shutting down all lanes of southbound I-15 at Front Street and Temecula Parkway as firefighters battled the blaze.

As of 8 a.m. Monday, there was no closure on I-15 connected to the fire.

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Meanwhile, a fire also burned in Pala, California, approximately 13 miles southeast of Temecula. That blaze, dubbed the Pala Fire by officials, scorched 70 acres and was 95 percent contained as of 6 p.m. Sunday. The Pala Fire has been burning since Tuesday. Winds and hot temperatures caused the blaze to flare up once again Friday night, prompting evacuations in the area.

Temecula is located approximately 60 miles north of downtown San Diego.

A trend called the "fire challenge" has spread across the country and Texas teens are landing in emergency rooms suffering from severe burns.

To participate in the challenge, teens record themselves spraying aerosol cans or pouring flammable liquid onto their stomachs or hands and lighting it. Then they post the videos on social media with the hashtag #firechallenge.

"There's a misconception that they're going to be able to light themselves on fire, get a cool video and then quickly put the flames with shower water," said Parkland Memorial Hospital burn specialist Stephanie Campbell. "But it's absolutely not true."

Several teens have reportedly been injured or killed performing the challenge.

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Campbell said Parkland has seen a recent spike in patients who attempted the challenge and suffered burns on their torsos and necks.

The challenge, however, has been around for a while.

"We started seeing it back in 2013 and 2014," she said. "It went away for a little bit, but it seems to be making a comeback which is upsetting to us. Younger people are not understanding the consequences of them doing this."

Teens told NBC 5 it's meant to attract attention on social media.

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"Is it really worth getting all of those likes on Facebook?" Campbell asked. "All of the pain and intense rehab? Burn injuries are injuries for a lifetime. This is what a lot of young people don't understand."

Doctors in New York warned against the challenge after a 12-year-old boy set himself on fire late last month. He was rushed to the hospital in critical condition with second- and third-degree burns over nearly half his body.

The younger brother of former President Bill Clinton was arrested on suspicion on DUI Sunday in Redondo Beach, California, according to police.

Jail records show Clinton, 59, of Torrance, remained in custody Monday morning. He was released on $15,000 bond. 

He was arrested after a "concerned citizen" called police Sunday night to report a possible DUI driver, according to a statement from the Redondo Beach Police Department. The caller reported the vehicle traveling south on Pacific Coast Highway in an "erratic manner."

The driver followed the vehicle until police stopped the car near Torrance Boulevard and Prospect Avenue. 

A court appearance was scheduled for Sept. 2. It was not immediately clear whether Clinton had obtained an attorney.

The arrest of Hillary Clinton's brother-in-law came two days before the California primary in which the former secretary of state is locked in a tight race with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Hillary Clinton won the Puerto Rico primary on Sunday, bringing her closer to becoming the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party. She also scored a win in Saturday's U.S. Virgin Islands caucuses.

Voters is six states, including California, head to the polls Tuesday.

Roger Clinton, the former president's half brother, was lso arrested in 2001 on suspicion of DUI in Hermosa Beach.

He was pardoned in January 2001 by President Bill Clinton on charges stemming from a 1985 arrest for distribution of cocaine.

At age 11, Tanishq Abraham became the youngest student to graduate with three degrees in the 60-year history of his Sacramento college.

Now, at age 12, he will be among the youngest students to ever attend the University of California at Davis — as a junior. The youngest student ever to attend, was 12-year-old Nicole Tan of Byron in 2000, who graduated in May 2004, according to school spokeswoman Julia Ann Easley.

The brainy pre-teen will study bio-engineering, his mother Taji Abraham told NBC Bay Area on Monday.

Tanishq has already racked up two years of credit while studying at American River College, where he earned three associates degrees in math and physical science, general science and language studies, enabling him to enter UC Davis as a junior.

Tanishq was also accepted to UC Santa Cruz, but his family, which lives in the Sacramento area, chose the closer school in Davis. Abraham said she didn't want to send the pre-pubescent boy to live in the dorms by himself. This way, she can drop off Tanishq on campus, run some errands and come back for him.

"Location, location, location," Tanishq said as his main reason for choosing the UC school closest to his home.

Tanishq's 10-year-old sister, Tiara, is now currently attending his alma mater of American River College. Uprooting the family to Santa Cruz would have been more difficult for everyone, Abraham said.

As for summer plans, Abraham said Tanishq will simply be taking more classes. He's been out of school for two weeks, she said, and "he's been bored to death."

The age of the youngest student in the history of UC Davis was not immediately known.

Organizers of the annual music festival Coachella in Indio, California, are getting ready to start advance sales this week.

Although no details have been announced about performers, advance ticket sales for the springtime ritual will commence on Wednesday at 11 a.m. PDT. Next year’s back-to-back weekends will take place April 14-16 and April 21-23, and prospective buyers will be limited to two passes (of any combination other than with hotel packages or Lake Eldorado 4-person tents). However, fans can buy two passes for each weekend.

Fans are being warned that they have to buy a festival pass within the same order as their tent- or car-camping spots for the camping spots to be valid.

The festival may be even bigger this year -- while past years saw about 100,000 fans on the Empire Polo Grounds, organizers were granted permission by local officials this year to increase the attendance cap to 125,000, according to published reports.

Festival-goers who went to Coachella 2016 got to see headliners LCD Soundsystem, Guns N’ Roses and Calvin Harris, as well as over 100 other acts.

Muhammad Ali' daughter Laila Ali said Monday "the whole world is sad" over the death of her father, who fought with Parkinson's disease nearly half his life and died Friday at the age of 74.  

"It wasn't easy to watch him suffer, so knowing that he's not suffering anymore is what gives me comfort," Laila Ali said of the boxing legend on NBC's "Today" show. "I prepared mentally for many years that one day I was going to lose my father and that time has come."

Asked if her father has grown weary of his fight with Parkinson's, Laila Ali said "it was never to the point where he wanted to move on. One of the things he was afraid of was death."

"I know he's in a better place now," added Laila Ali, herself a former boxing champion. "He's talking again and moving again and doing all the things he couldn't do with his body. I'm happy for that even though I'm going to miss him deeply." 

Muhammad Ali will be buried Friday in Louisville, Kentucky. A private funeral ceremony will be held Thursday, The Associated Press reported. 

A remark by San Diego mayoral candidate Ed Harris in which he described San Diego police as “stormtroopers” in their response to the Trump protests has drawn the ire of the department’s union.

Harris, who is vying to replace Mayor Kevin Faulconer, made the comment during a mayoral debate televised on NBC 7 on Friday evening.

Asked his opinion of the police’s militant response during the May 27 protests in downtown San Diego during Donald Trump’s rally, Harris called it “not respectful.”

“It’s not respectful to march into Barrio Logan when people come out their houses when they hear the stormtroopers coming down the street,” Harris said.

San Diego police officers were seen in riot gear trying to keep separate Trump supporters and protesters; they eventually declared an “unlawful assembly” as the incident wore on and protesters refused to leave downtown.

The protesters were ultimately pushed to the Barrio Logan neighborhood south of downtown.

In response, Faulconer said he thought police did a “remarkable job” in keeping the protests from escalating.

“We treated protesters and supporters with respect,” the mayor said.

Later Friday evening, the San Diego Police Officers Association (SDPOA) took to Twitter to criticize Harris’ choice of words.

“We strongly encourage Ed Harris to retract his characterization of San Diego PD officers as ‘stormtroopers,’”the SDPOA tweeted.

Harris’ remarks also surprised several of the NBC 7 panelists, including Voice of San Diego Editor in Chief Scott Lewis:

In a follow-up statement, Harris said he wasn’t retracting his statements. He noted he wasn’t criticizing police, but the mayor’s office in the protest response.

During the debate, Harris blamed the promotion of inexperienced officers for how he thought things were handled.

He issued this statement on Sunday:

"As a public safety officer, I have the utmost respect for our men and women in the San Diego Police Department. My reference was solely aimed at the poor management decision to send armored police and vehicles into the Barrio Logan neighborhood a mile away from the protest."

Southern California lawmaker Rocky Chavez finds Donald Trump's views on trade with Mexico so ill-informed, his statements about women so derogatory, his support of torture so dangerous that he cannot see himself ever supporting his party's presumptive nominee for president.

"His depictions of Latinos I found very offensive," said Assemblyman Chavez, a Marine Corps veteran who district includes the corps' Camp Pendleton. "His view of world politics scares me. That's going to take military lives."

Chavez is among Republican Latinos who are rejecting Trump outright, appalled by what he says and worried that he is endangering advances they have made in bringing other Latinos into the GOP. He said he would work to elect other Republicans on the ballot in California but not Trump.

Trump wasn't Jacob Monty's first choice for president, not even his second, but the Houston-based immigration lawyer will raise money for the billionaire businessman.

"At first blush it may sound weird," Monty conceded. "I'm a Latino activist, and I'm concerned about immigration reform yet I'm whole heartedly supporting him."

Not only is he convinced that Trump's deportation threats are so much bombast but he is hopeful that a president from the right might convince Republicans to overhaul immigration laws, much as President Richard Nixon was able to establish relations with Communist China, he said.

"He would have the credentials to convince Republicans, 'Hey this time we're serious guys, I'm behind it, I'm going to get it done,'" Monty said of his fellow Republican.

Across the country, Hispanic Republicans like Chavez and Monty are grappling with Trump's candidacy, forced to choose between ignoring his many insults to support the GOP or standing up for their heritage and forgoing party loyalty.

Trump's campaign did not respond to NBC's questions for this article about how the campaign was reaching out to Latinos but told The Associated Press it was early to talk about.

"Any demographic that is growing at the rate of the Latino voters obviously will be of the utmost importance to a presidential campaign," Trump aide Ed Brookover told the AP.

Trump began appealing to anger over immigration the moment he declared his candidacy, singling out Mexicans in particular in comments many have called racist.

"They’re bringing drugs," he said. "They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people."

He tweeted that Jeb Bush "has to like the Mexican illegals" because of his Mexican-born wife. He insists that if elected, he would build a wall on the Mexico-U.S. border that Mexico would pay for. He promises to deport all 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States.

And the put-downs continue. He charged that New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez, a rising GOP star of Mexican heritage, was doing a poor job after she refused to appear at a rally with him. And he accused U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who is presiding over lawsuits against Trump University, of having a conflict of interest because his parents were Mexican immigrants.

Prominent Republicans are warning him to drop his attacks against the judge.

"I think it's a big mistake for our party to write off Latino Americans," the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell said on "Meet the Press" on Sunday. "They're an important part of our country."

Supporter Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker, called the Curiel comments Trump's "worst mistake" and "inexcusable."

Trump's behavior is causing turmoil within the Republican National Committee. Ruth Guerra, the committee’s director of Hispanic communications, resigned last week because according to The New York Times she was uncomfortable working to elect him. Her replacement, Helen Aguirre Ferre, a former aide to Jeb Bush, said in a statement that she was eager to make the case of Republican values to the Hispanic community, but reporters immediately found critical comments she had made about Trump on Spanish-language television programs and on Twitter.

Hispanic Republicans are "caught in 2016 meat grinder" she wrote in a tweet that has since been deleted.

Two of Trump's former competitors — Cuban-American U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and Ted Cruz of Texas — are taking different tacks after losing to him. Rubio, who during the primary called Trump a "lunatic," now says he would be honored to speak on Trump's behalf at the Republican convention in July. Cruz, who described Trump as "a narcissist at a level I don't think this country has ever seen," plans to take his fight for a conservative agenda to the convention.

Massey Villarreal, the president of Houston-based business management company Precision Task Group, had vowed never to support Trump -- when there were still 17 Republicans running for the nomination.

Now the son of a Mexican immigrant says that he would consider Trump if it were in the best interest of the Latino community but that Trump needs to meet with conservative Latino leaders to explain his rhetoric. He has been using immigrants as a wedge issue to scare people to the polls, Villarreal said.

"The only way to hold people accountable is to be in the game and not from the outside," he said. "I would entertain bringing leaders together to see if there's a middle ground."

Art Martinez de Vara, a Texas lawyer and a chief of staff for state Sen. Konni Burton, said that Latinos who do support Trump were weighing more than immigration — foreign policy and the economy, for example.

"Their rallying cry around here seems to be, 'Hold your nose and vote for Trump,'" he said.

Mexican-Americans in Texas view immigration differently from many in Washington, D.C., he said, by supporting guest worker programs, for example.

Sixty-three percent of the Hispanic population in the United States was Mexican-American, according to the U.S. Census Bureau in a 2010 report. But many Republican consultants and leaders are Cuban-Americans, a group that faces easier immigration regulations, Martinez de Vara noted. 

Martinez de Vara, who backed Cruz, said he supported security at the U.S.-Mexico border but argued that a wall would represent a massive confiscation of private property, a big-government, big-spending project. He said he was still deciding what to do. Hillary Clinton's policies would be disastrous for the economy, he said, and Trump, though far more conservative than Clinton, falls short on fiscal issues.

"If you're a tried and true conservative and believe in limited government, a lot of the things we hear from Mr. Trump are concerning," he said.

Polls released last month show Trump getting less than a quarter of the Hispanic vote — 20 percent in one from NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist Polling Institute. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who was widely criticized after saying he favored "self-deportation" for undocumented immigrants, got 27 percent of the Latino vote in the 2012 presidential race.

After Romney's defeat, the Republican National Committee conducted an autopsy to find ways to turn around the party's fortunes. Among the key recommendations: Extensive outreach to minorities, including Hispanics, and championing comprehensive immigration reform.

"If we do not, our party's appeal will continue to shrink to its core constituencies only," the Growth and Opportunity Project said.

But Mike Madrid, a GOP political consultant in Sacramento, who looks at Latino voting trends, said he worried that Trump's repeated insults would chase Hispanics from the Republican party for at least of generation.

It is a lost opportunity for Republicans because Latinos are not locked into the Democratic party, he said, though they remain overwhelmingly Democratic.

In 2014 congressional races across the country, Democrats took the Latino vote 62 percent to 36 percent, though in some states Republicans won with more than 40 percent of the Latino vote, the Pew Research Center found.

"At the same time you've got a candidate who's leaving Latino voters with no other choice but to go to the Democratic party because of his rhetoric on things like immigration," Madrid said.

The candidate most appealing to young Latinos is Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, a reflection of age rather than ethnicity, he said. A record 27.3 million Hispanics are expected to be eligible voters this year, 44 percent of them millennials, according to the Pew Research Center. Nearly one in three voters will be Hispanic, black, Asian or from another racial or ethnic minority, it reported. Much of the change is due to growth among Hispanic voters, a demographic shift that is expected to continue for decades.

California, which holds its presidential primaries on Tuesday, has more Latinos than any other state followed by Texas and Florida, according to the Pew Research Center. More than half of the U.S. Hispanic population lives in those three states.

Ron Garcia, a former mayor of Brea City in Orange County, California, and a founding member of the Southern California Latino Policy Center, said that the Democratic party takes the Latino vote for granted while the Republican party has given up appealing to Hispanics. Latinos are not served well by either party, he said.

"Unfortunately I know a lot of Latinos that would vote conservative but the rhetoric the Republican party puts out in regards to people of Hispanic ethnicity, it offends them although most of them are really anti illegal immigration," he said.

Hispanics are conservative by culture on social issues, but Trump has brought the Latinos together in their opposition to the Republican agenda, he said. He has alienated them with his divisive language though he could be the candidate that would bring jobs, he said.

"I think that Mr. Trump as a president would be a favorable thing for the Latino community," he said. "I really do believe that."

A move is underway to oust the California judge who sparked outrage after he sentenced a former Stanford University swimmer to just six months in jail for raping an unconscious woman behind a dumpster outside a campus frat party, NBC News reported.

The sentence Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky imposed on Brock Turner, 20, has been blasted by the victim as a "mockery of the seriousness of his assault" and called a "slap on the wrist" by the San Jose Mercury News.

In their recall petition, Change.org noted that "Judge Persky failed to see that the fact that Brock Turner is a white male star athlete at a prestigious university does not entitle him to leniency. He also failed to send the message that sexual assault is against the law regardless of social class, race, gender or other factors."

Persky, 54, did not immediately return a call for comment about his controversial sentence or the drive to remove him from the bench.

A section of San Diego that includes some of its most economically disadvantaged neighborhoods has been designated a 'promise zone' by the Obama administration, a move that could help the area see increased funding and growth. 

The 'promise zone' initiate pairs Federal government partners with local leaders to help bolster resources to local agencies and give support to targeted communities, according to a statement by the White House Press Office. 

Areas designated 'promise zones' get more Federal support for local leaders in high-poverty communities in a move to create jobs, improve education, increase affordable housing and other locally-chosen priorities. 

"They're communities that develop a holistic plan to ensure that every child's course in life is determined not by the zip code she's born in, but by the scope of her dreams," President Obama wrote in a post on Medium.

San Diego's designated 'promise zone' is made up of three of the City's most economically disadvantaged neighborhoods: bounded by the San Diego Unified Port District to the west, downtown San Diego and State Route 94 to the north, National City to the south and the City of Lemon Grove to the east. 

Some of the funding will target the 40.1 percent unemployment rate among youths aged 16 to 24 in the area, according to a statement from the White House. The City of San Diego and its partners will also work to ameliorate the high crime rates and lack of affordable housing. 

Areas previously designated 'promise zones' have received more than $550 million in federal funding, the White House said. 

The recent San Diego region selected as a 'promise zone' is in the third and final round of promise zone selections. Nashville, South Los Angeles, Atlanta, Evansville, Spokane Tribe of Indians in Washington, Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, North Dakota, Southwest Florida, and Puerto Rico's Ceiba, Fajardo, and Naguado Municipalities were also selected as promise zones.

As the Democratic primaries near the end, Hillary Clinton will mark the anniversary of conceding the nomination to then Senator Barack Obama.

Exactly eight years to the day from that speech, Clinton is all but assured to become the presumptive Democratic nominee, and the first woman to do so for a major political party.

Although Clinton is not the first woman to be on a national ticket, Sarah Palin was a vice presidential candiate in 2008, as was Geraldine Ferraro in 1984, the national mood about women in politics has evolved in the last seven decades.

In 2015, an NBC/WSJ poll showed that a combined 85 percent said they would be either enthusiastic (30 percent) or comfortable (55 percent) with a woman in the White House.

But a few decades earlier, the acceptability of a female candidate was more controversial. In 1969, it was 53 percent to 40 percent.

A mile stretch of the Orange County coastline was reopened Monday, a day after multiple sharks spotted in the waters near the Huntington Beach shore forced closures.

Sharks, estimated to be anywhere from 8 to 12 feet in length, were spotted 150 yards off the coast at Sunset Beach.

The water between Anderson Street South in Seal Beach and Warner Avenue, a mile stretch, was closed to swimmers, Huntington Beach Marine Safety Lt. Claude Panis said.

The mile stretch remained off limits to swimmers for the rest of the day and was reopened late Monday morning.

The sighting came a week after a woman was bitten in the waters of Newport Beach, about 16 miles away from Sunset Beach.

The woman, a triathlete, was hospitalized with wounds consistent with a shark attack. She remained in the hospital following the ordeal. Doctors at the time said it wasn't clear if she would have full use of her right arm after the attack.

Donald Trump's campaign is a bare-bones effort debilitated by infighting, a lack of staff to carry out basic functions, minimal coordination with allies and a message that's prisoner to Trump's momentary whims, sources told NBC News. 

Three Trump aides and two sources working closely alongside the campaign requested anonymity in order speak freely about the campaign to NBC News.

"Bottom line, you can hire all the top people in the world, but to what end? Trump does what he wants," a source close to the campaign said.

Trump's campaign is lacking a communications team to deal with the hundreds of media outlets covering the race, no rapid response director to quickly rebut attacks and launch new ones, and a limited cast of surrogates who lack a cohesive message.

The campaign is bringing on a new senior staffer Jim Murphy, according to The New York Times, and a source told NBC News more communications hires are expected to follow. But they lag far behind the Clinton campaign.

A San Diego judge sentenced a man to roughly 10 years in prison Monday for his role in a deadly wrong-way highway collision that killed a grandmother on her way to visit her family.

Shane McDonald was sentenced to 13 years 8 months in prison with eligibility for parole after 85 percent of the sentence is served.

McDonald was driving a black Audi A4 in the wrong direction in the express lanes along Interstate 15 on May 2, 2015 when he collided head-on with a vehicle carrying five people.

Rodolfo De La Torre, 55, of Escondido, was behind the wheel of the Honda Civic. He and Teresa Esparza Hernandez, 84, of Escondido died in the crash.

Torre changed lanes to avoid the collision but McDonald did the same maneuver and the vehicles collided head-on, CHP officers said.

The family was driving to the Tijuana airport to catch a 6 a.m. flight to Aguascalientes, Mexico. Hernandez wanted to visit her hometown to see family. She had six kids – five of whom live in San Diego.

Torre, who grew up in Escondido, served in the U.S. Army before working for the post office. He had recently started taking cooking classes and was working as a pastry chef at Valley View Casino, his sister told NBC 7.

Torre's wife and two children were in the back seat of the Civic. All suffered head trauma. Two suffered broken necks and severe abdomenal injuries from the seatbelt.

A Southern California boy was killed and his mother was hospitalized when a truck racing in the Baja 500 drove off the course in downtown Ensenada, according to a published report.

The crash occurred just after 10:30 a.m. at a spot in the famous off-roading course, ZetaTijuana.com reports.

Screams can be heard from the crowd as the truck turns a corner and then drives along the edge of a hillside only to then continue down the hill into a crowd below.

The child has not been identified by authorities. However, the Mexico news website identified him as an 8-year-old child. His mother, identified as a 28-year-old American woman, suffered a broken leg according to the report.

NBC Los Angeles went to a San Clemente home connected to the victims. A family member would not talk about the crash.

The driver of the truck, identified by race organizers as a Utah man, issued a statement.

"I'm devastated by the tragic accident that happened this weekend. My heart goes out to the family at this time,” said Todd Pedersen of Orem, Utah.

Race organizers said Pedersen struck three spectators while negotiating a turn entering an area called the Ensenada wash.

Authorities recognized that it was an accident. No charges were filed.

Pedersen is the CEO of a Utah-based company, Vivint, Inc., the Salt Lake Tribune reported Sunday.

The news report said the victims were standing outside the restricted area for spectators.

Bloggers covering the event also reported the victims in the crash were standing in an unsafe area.

The Baja 500 has been running for 48 years. The competition has held its start and finish lines in the city of Ensenada dozens of times.

Score International, Off-Road racing, the company that organizes the annual event, publishes information for fans on their Spectator Safety Guidelines page.

Because vehicles can easily reach speeds of over 100 mph, spectators are advised to stay at least 100 feet from the course at all times.

“Children under the age of 16 and infants should ALWAYS be accompanied by adults who are responsible for their behavior,” the site states. “At no time should adults allow children to play within 100 feet (30 meters) feet of the race course.”