A water main break flooded several blocks of Commercial Street in Grant Hill early Monday.

Water first started bubbling up after 4 a.m. when the 30-inch water main made of reinforced concrete steel burst, officials said.

Soon, the standing water reached several blocks away and momentarily delayed trolley service.

Crews were working to shut down five gate valves connected to this pipe. The work must be done slowly to avoid other pipes breaking.

No customers were without water. However, water pressure could be low for residents in the area.

Once gate valves are shutdown, they will dig in to excavate the pipe and see the damage.

Crews could be working on this up until Tuesday morning.

Commercial Street between 29th and and 31st Streets was closed to cars.

Trolley service was temporarily stopped but appeared to be running and able to navigate through the flooding without incident.

Berkeley police - criticized by some for shooting tear gas into a crowd and allegedly hitting journalists with batons - made five arrests by early Monday morning after some protesters got violent, including damaging a Trader Joe's with a skateboard and injuring two officers. The California Highway Patrol made eight arrests after protesters blocked the freeway on Sunday night.

Berkeley police spokeswoman Jennifer Coats said in addition to the officers, one protester was injured over the weekend when he was assaulted with a hammer when he tried to keep other demonstrators from looting a Radio Shack on Shattuck Avenue. That man was taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

Several Berkeley business were damaged on both Saturday and Sunday nights along Telegraph and Shattuck Avenues. Protesters set dumpsters on fire in the street across from an Arco station at Alacatraz and Telegraph avenues, technically on the Oakland border. The Whole Foods in Berkeley was smashed. Protesters sang anti-police songs and kicked over Porta-Potties in the street.

Around the country, people have taken to the streets to protest the deaths of black men - Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri and Eric Garner in Staten Island - at the hands of white police officers who were not indicted.

Amidst the violence, Berkeley police shot tear gas into crowds over the weekend. Some innocent people got caught up in the toxic spray including an older crowd who attended the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra at the First Congregational Church of Berkeley on Channing Way that let out about 10:30 p.m. on Saturday night. The Society of Professional Journalists sent an email to Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates and the police chief, called the police officers' conduct "outrageous," as some journalists said they were hit with batos as they were covering the protests.

On social media, people including @WorthoftheWord tweeted "all #berkley police action did lastnight is radicalized an unsuspecting group of passersbys, and fired up alot of ppl that had no idea." Some marched toward Bates' house to decry what they saw as heavy-handedness of the police department. Bates was not immediately available Monday morning for comment.

Sunday's protest began peacefully on the University of California, Berkeley campus. But as protesters marched through downtown Berkeley toward the neighboring city of Oakland, someone smashed the window of a Radio Shack. When a protester tried to stop the vandalism, he was hit with a hammer, Officer Jennifer Coats said.

Some of the protesters made their way to a Highway 24 in Oakland and blocked traffic. The California Highway Patrol said some tried to light a patrol vehicle on fire and threw rocks, bottles and an explosive at officers. Highway patrol officers responded with tear gas. The CHP tweeted out pictures of damaged patrol cars, showing shattered windshields. Five patrol cars were damaged, the CHP said.

On Saturday night, three officers and a technician were hurt and six people were arrested when a similar protest turned unruly. The most serious injury was a dislocated shoulder, Berkeley police said.

Berkleyside, an online news agency, live tweeted throughout the weekend, keeping track of the protests. Senior reporter Emilie Raguso took photos of many dumpsters and city garbage cans on fire, and about 100 people sitting down in the street at Alcatraz and Telegraph avenues Sunday night.

Berkeley police also fired off a string of tweets, telling the public where protesters were marching, looting and assaulting others -  and warning people to avoid the area.

The unrest in Berkeley follows violent disruptions of demonstrations in San Francisco and Oakland in recent days. Five San Francisco police officers sought medical treatment after sustaining injuries during a protest in downtown San Francisco on Black Friday.

Wire services contributed to this report.

A massive fire at a construction site in downtown Los Angeles closed down portions of the 110 and 101 freeways early Monday, and plumes of smoke could be seen for miles.

Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman David Ortiz said more than 250 firefighters battled the blaze in the 900 block of Fremont Avenue (map). Crews stood on the 110 Freeway to douse the flames, which also caused significant damage to two other buildings.

The Southbound 101 and 110 freeways were reopened just before 5 a.m. Northbound lanes of the 110 were expected to remain closed through the morning rush hour.

"This is a historic fire, what we as firefighters would call 'a career fire,'" Ortiz told NBC News. "It's huge. I really can't remember a building fire this big and I have been with the department for 13 years."

Deputy Chief Joe Castro concurred.

"It’s been a long time since we’ve had an under-construction fire this significant," he said.

Castro said a building at 221 Figueroa Street that houses government offices was badly damaged, and the building would remain off-limits Monday.

"Basically all of the windows from the second to the 15th floor were broken out due to the radiant heat," he said. "We had fire in several of the units that was held in check by both the sprinklers and the firefighters we deployed into that unit to stop the extension."

The fire burned wood framing at the planned seven-story apartment complex, and Castro said the fire originated in that building.

The heavy smoke prompted the California Highway Patrol to issue a SigAlert shutting down the transition from the northbound Harbor (110) Freeway to the northbound Hollywood (101) Freeway and the southbound Hollywood Freeway at Alvarado Street and Union Avenue.

The cause and extent of the fire are not yet known. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

Glass and debris was falling to the ground and a water sprinkler system had been activated at the city building by the time firefighters arrived. Castro said debris could be found about 1000 feet in any direction of the fire.

A second fire erupted near 4 a.m. a few miles away at a two-story apartment complex that is under renovation. Initial reports questioned whether the two fires were linked.

"Our initial concern, obviously, was that we may have had some arsonist working some typical under construction buildings in the area. That doesn’t appear to be the case right now," Castro said.

Arson investigators are sifting through both scenes.

After 25 years of lawsuits and court rulings about the cross on Mount Soledad, there is a proposed solution in front of Congress.

The giant cross stands on government-owned land overlooking Mission Bay and La Jolla and has been at the center of a legal battle that reached the U.S. Supreme Court.

Now, Congress is close to passing a defense bill that would include a transfer of the property from the federal government over to the Mount Soledad Memorial Association. If approved, it would eliminate the concern by opponents that a cross on public property violates the constitutional separation of church and state.

In December 2013, a federal judge ordered the cross to come down, saying it violates the establishment clause of the Constitution by unlawfully endorsing one religion over others.

In July, the U.S. Supreme Court decided not to review the decades-long legal dispute.

Congressman Duncan Hunter has authored the bill being considered by Congress. His office released a statement to NBC 7 Sunday reading in part: "This is a significant move. Transferring the memorial from the federal government to the association alleviates the criticism that it’s government controlled property."

James McElroy is an attorney who fought the cross for 20 years. He said even if Congress passes this bill, in order for it to be constitutional, it could not appear the government is solely trying to protect a religious symbol.

“If the government is just saying we got ourselves into this litigation mess and the courts have told us over and over and over the last 20 years that the cross whether it's on city property or on federal property is unconstitutional, and so we want to divest ourselves of this."

The 43-foot-tall cross was first erected on public land in San Diego in the 1950s. In 1992, the Mt. Soledad Memorial Association purchased the land and in 2006, the memorial was officially transferred to the Department of Defense. 

There are hundreds of plaques honoring veterans of all religions surrounding the base of the cross.

San Diego County may be one of the priciest places to purchase a home in California but that statistic is also having a positive impact on the real estate market.

Construction sites abound in east Chula Vista. In Otay Ranch, many homes are selling before they're even built.

Dennis Almario would know. He just bought his home in Otay Ranch.

"We already got about $75,000 in equity after a year when we bought it," Almario said.

It’s a great gain for Almario who lost a previous home to the mortgage meltdown a few years ago.

In fact, Chula Vista was one of the hardest hit areas. Foreclosures became easy money for investors to buy and flip.

But with the economic growth, real estate experts say home values have increased about four percent.

And in the next year real estate agent Jason Olaivar says the San Diego County housing market should see stable price gains.

"Right now we've been seeing a people a lot more educated in terms of their finances and what their housing budget is so they're not necessarily getting into that type of trouble again," Olaivar said.

"A lot of these homes are being built as fast as we can. You know to help keep up with the demand," he added.

A recent study listed San Diego as the second most-expensive metro city in California and in the U.S. overall for buying a median-priced house.

In San Diego, a median-priced home costs $517,800 at a mortgage rate of 4.28 percent. To be able to afford such a home with principal, interest, taxes and insurance payments, the buyer would need to earn an annual salary of $101,682.60.

More jobs offering a higher wage may continue to push the market forward.

"This will be another income for me and my family and my future and my kids and grandkids to pass along," Almario said.

Improving the housing market not only for homeowners in Chula Vista but across San Diego County.
 

A head-on collision left two seriously injured and a roadway shut down for more than an hour early Monday morning, the California Highway Patrol said.

Shortly before 7 a.m., a 54-year-old woman was driving westbound on State Route 76 east of Gird Road at an unknown speed when she veered into the eastbound lane, CHP Officer Jim Bettencourt said. Her 1986 Ford Ranger collided into a Nissan Frontier driven by a 64-year old man from Dana Point.

Following the impact of the collision, both parties had to be extracted from their cars by the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department.

The 54-year-old woman from Murrieta suffered multiple facial fractures and was transported via ambulance to Palomar Hospital, Bettencourt said. The 64-year-old man suffered broken legs and was transported on a life flight to Palomar Hospital.

The State Route was shut down for one hour and 20 minutes following the crash for an investigation into the accident. Bettencourt said alcohol or drugs do not appear to be a factor in the collision.

San Diego Gas & Electric crews stumbled upon an ordnance while doing work in Tierrasanta Monday afternoon.

The employees found the 3-inch mortar shell as they worked in a canyon next to an electrical substation near Tierrasanta Boulevard and Colina Dorada Drive, according to San Diego police.

SDG&E immediately called police, who requested San Diego Fire-Rescue teams.

A bomb squad investigated the scene and cleared it.

No evacuations have been ordered, and no injuries have been reported.

More than 325,000 San Diegans flocked to Balboa Park to celebrate an annual holiday tradition.

The December Nights festival, known to many locals by its former name, "Christmas on the Prado," took place at the uptown park on Friday and Saturday for the 36th consecutive year. People came to enjoy the many activities the park offered.

Among those activities: free concerts featuring choirs and singers from all over the country, international food options and free museum hours.

Thought the parking was limited, Balboa Park spokeswoman Debbie Patruzzelli said, the shuttles worked well and the additional garage they added at San Diego City College this year helped with the congestion.

Free parking was available outside the San Diego Zoo and paid parking was offered at the Village Place lot or the Inspiration Point lots. Additionally, $5 parking was available at Petco Park with a free shuttle to the festival. Free parking was offered at City College with a shuttle to the festival.

About 150,000 people came out to the park on Friday and 175,000 turned out on Saturday. Museum attendance was not immediately available, as those statistics can take a few days to be compiled.

Next year, Balboa Park is looking to making the shuttle service more efficient, Petruzzelli said.

The Tennessee Titans say they are aware police are investigating a sexual assault allegation involving defensive lineman Sammie Hill.

"We will let the police investigate the allegation, and we will provide any assistance they need," the Titans said in a statement Monday. "We have discussed the matter with Sammie, and we will continue to gather facts."

Atlanta Police Department spokesman John Chaffee wrote in an email that a woman told police she had been sexually assaulted by Hill and they are working with the woman for more information.

The woman apparently contacted Houston police first. Spokesman Victor Senties confirmed to The Associated Press that Houston police took a report Friday from a woman alleging she had been sexually assaulted in Atlanta and forwarded that to police there.

Hill, who played at Stillman and a West Blocton, Alabama, native, is a six-year veteran in the second year of a three-year deal with Tennessee. The 6-foot-4, 328-pound Hill has started 12 games this season.
 

Think of our current gas prices as a raise.

"Minimum wages have not yet gone up," said retired San Diego State finance professor Tony Cherin, "but in effect, lower gas prices does mean the minimum wage can buy more."

Drivers are noticing. Jason Coker filled up his pickup truck Monday in El Cajon for $2.75 a gallon.

What will he do with the savings?

"I hope to get some Christmas presents for the kids. That's number one," Coker said. "Number two, pay bills."

On Sunday, Dec. 7, the average price for regular unleaded gas in San Diego dropped below $3 a gallon. The last time prices were this low was on Oct. 5, 2010. It wasn't that long ago that drivers were paying more than $4 in San Diego, but now, prices are dropping fast.

"We have a little extra money. It let's us go to dinner, or we have extra money to get a little bit better gift for somebody," said Amanda Masters as she was filling her gas tank.

Nearby, Ariel Simmons says she usually paid about $45 to fill her compact car. On Monday, it cost her $32.

Cherin says local merchants hope consumers will spend some of that savings at their stores and restaurants.

"What they are not going to spend at the gas pump will allow them to spend a little more on Christmas and some things they may be putting off," Cherin said.

If oil prices keep dropping, some gas price experts predict the price at the pump could drop to $2.49 by Christmas.

San Diego's overworked firefighters are looking at the prospect of big changes in their paychecks a few years from now.

City auditor Eduardo Luna figures that hiring more staff will become as affordable as paying overtime.

Luna’s findings are based on projected cost savings from Proposition B, which took effect in July 2012, putting all new city employees except police officers into 401(k) style retirement plans, as opposed to traditional “defined-benefits” pensions.

"It's going to get to a point when we have more post-Prop. B firefighters on our payroll,” said San Diego Fire-Rescue Chief Javier Mainar. “It'll then become less costly to hire additional firefighters than it will to work them overtime."

Overtime pay now accounts for more than a quarter of the San Diego Fire Department's payroll costs.

Its ten highest-compensated members made between $191,273 to $247,873 in fiscal year 2013.

Firefighters have been on rotating, mandatory overtime since then, and it's wearing them out.

"There's a sweet spot to hiring,” said Alan Arrollado, President of San Diego City Firefighters Local 145. “We don't want to over-hire because the minute we have too many people, that's essentially wasted money.”

However, Arrollado cautioned in an interview Monday, “We don't want to be short, because the workload upon the current employees is too great. So it's a constant balancing. And the fire department analyzes its staffing every month."

Unless contract negotiations or other factors intervene, Mainar said the tipping point where it's a fiscal toss-up between new hires and overtime costs is projected at about five years, maybe less.

As for one of those other factors?

"What happens if you make those changes to hire additional people, and litigation is successful to overturn Prop. B?” Mainar told NBC 7. “So a lot of variables there -- so we have to be very careful about when we pick that point."

Said Liam Dillon, who’s extensively covered local public safety issues for Voice of San Diego: "It really comes down to dollars and cents, and that argument's been muddled for years. This is just another step in figuring out which ultimately makes more sense for the city financially. And I'm sure there are political aspects to it as well."

The issue will be discussed by the San Diego City Council Tuesday afternoon, and while it may be some time before moves are made, it’s expected there will be an intense focus on how any changes are written -- and rolled out.

A retired San Diego police officer escorting a funeral was injured when a vehicle struck his motorcycle in Mountain View Monday.

The motorcycle ended upside down on the corner of South 45th Street and Imperial Avenue just west of Interstate 805 just before 1 p.m.

The officer, identified by his family as Gary Morris, had been blocking an intersection to allow the funeral procession to go through when he jumped on his motorcycle and began making a U-turn to catch up.

"Out of nowhere a car rammed into him from behind," said Jesse Ortega. "We could hear the screech from the brakes but it wasn't enough. He hit him almost at full speed."

The motorcycle and Morris both flew into the air about 20 feet or so, Ortega said.

"It wasn't a good sight to see. It was horrible,"  he said.

The collision happened right in front of Fred Eslinger.  He said Morris landed on his back.

The officer was said to be talking to emergency personnel as he was helped onto a gurney and transported to Sharp Memorial Hospital. 

"He was badly bruised. He looked like he was in shock pretty good," Eslinger said who added the officer was lucky to be alive after such a bad crash.

The sedan didn't make any attempt to stop and almost drove into other vehicles as he sped away from the scene, Ortega said. 

San Diego police found a vehicle approximately one block away on West Street.

The driver has not been found.

A pedestrian died Monday night after being hit by a trolley in the San Ysidro area, San Diego Police say. 

The collision happened at 150 W. Seaward Avenue just after 10 p.m. About 15 minutes later, the person was confirmed dead. 

The trolley service has been halted and traffic along the street blocked off as police investigate what caused the crash. 

A new survey confirms what San Diegans already know: San Diego is a top beer town.

The survey from Livability.com ranks San Diego No. 3 on its “10 Best Beer Cities 2014” list.

The website focuses on small to medium-sized cities, but editors still included big city San Diego because it was “hard to ignore.”

Editors ranked cities based on various criteria, such as the number of award-winning breweries in town, the percentage of craft beer drinkers and liquor stores per capita, among other factors.

Here’s the full list:

1. Bend, Oregon
2. Denver, Colorado
3. San Diego, California
4. Albuquerque, New Mexico
5. Tampa, Florida
6. Grand Rapids, Michigan
7. St. Louis, Missouri
8. Bellingham, Washington
9. Hershey, Pennsylvania
10. Billings, Montana

Another victim of Monday's deadly plane crash has been identified as authorities continue their investigation into what caused the small jet to crash into a Gaithersburg, Maryland neighborhood.

The jet crashed about a mile from its destination of Montgomery County Airpark, making a narrow gash through the roof of one home before coming to rest against a second house. A wing containing fuel catapulted into a third home, causing a large, deadly fire.

The dead included 36-year-old mother Marie Gemmel, who died inside her home with two of her young children, Michael Rosenberg, the CEO of a North Carolina-based biopharma corporation, and David Hartman, a vice president at a pharmacology consulting firm. Rosenberg and Hartman were aboard the plane.

Firefighters quickly responded to the scene, but said the flames were too large and too dangerous to do a top-to-bottom search.

An NTSB team will spend about three days to a week collecting evidence at the scene. The black box, which was in good condition, was taken to D.C. to be downloaded.

Gemmell, 36, was on the second floor of the home cradling her sons 7-week-old Devon and 3-year-old Cole during the fire.

Just hours before the crash, Marie Gemmell posted on her Facebook page that she just wanted to "stay home" Monday and watch TV with her kids. Her visibly distraught husband was at the scene throughout the day, and the couple's oldest child, a 5-year-old girl, was not home during the crash.

A GoFundMe page has been set up for Marie's husband and surviving child.

All three people abroad the jet were also killed, including Michael Rosenberg, CEO of North Carolina-based biopharma corporation Health Decisions, Inc. Two other deceased individuals aboard the jet have not yet been identified.

Four years ago, Rosenberg was involved in a minor plane crash at Montgomery County Airpark.

According to the News Observer in Chapel Hill, he was scheduled to meet with his son who lives in the D.C. area Monday night. Rosenberg had previously worked with the Centers for Disease Control.

Hartman was the vice president of clinical pharmacology, pharmacokinetics and nonclinical development at Nuventra.

“We are deeply saddened by the loss of David and will miss him both personally and professionally,” said Geoffrey Banks Nuventra's CEO. “On behalf of all us at Nuventra, our thoughts and prayers are with David's family as well as others affected by this terrible tragedy.”

Just before air traffic control realized it had lost the plane, there was a brief discussion of the quantity of birds around the airport, but it's too early in the investigation to blame a bird strike for the crash.

Tracey Everett was on a nearby road when he saw the plane flying extremely low.

"You could tell he was struggling with the sticks. He was trying to pull up; he would gain a little elevation and then drop again," Everett said. "His wings were wobbling back and forth, very unsteadily."

Everett saw the pilot make a hard right and then an erratic hard left, and the plane began to barrel roll. "And that's when it appeared to have made a dive down into the neighborhood," he said.

Byron Valencia, who lives in an adjacent community, heard the crash.

"We hear planes come through all the time," he said. "...I was actually in the kitchen making formula for my son, and I heard it come through, and that one was significantly louder than the other ones. And at the same time it passed over the house... I heard a thump... And then I started hearing sirens."

He said he looked out a window and saw smoke. "I could hear a small explosion go off when I first opened the window, and you could just see the black smoke rising," he said.

While gas prices around the U.S. have plunged another 12 cents a gallon, there is one forecast suggesting consumers could see the price of a gallon of gas drop to near $2 by this time next year.

Morgan Stanley is projecting by the second quarter of 2015, the U.S. could see the price of a barrel of oil down to $43.

"If that happens even here in San Diego there’s a pretty good chance we could see gas prices around $2 maybe even a little bit below $2 a gallon," said NBC 7’s business reporter George Chamberlin.

A national survey reveals the average price of regular gasoline has plunged another 12 cents a gallon over the past two weeks, to $2.72.

Industry analyst Trilby Lundberg said Sunday that lower crude oil prices are continuing to drive prices down, along with an abundant oil supply and the rising value of the U.S. dollar.

The highest-priced gas in 48 states was found in San Francisco at $3.04 a gallon. The lowest was in Albuquerque at $2.38 a gallon.

The average price for midgrade gas in the U.S. is $2.96. For premium it's $3.12. California's lowest average was in Sacramento, $2.80 a gallon.

A female firefighter has lost her life in the line of duty for the first time in Philadelphia's history.

Joyce Craig Lewis, a decorated 11-year-veteran of the department, died after being trapped fighting a blaze in the basement of a West Oak Lane home early Tuesday morning, city officials said.

"This brave firefighter gave her life trying to save the life of an elderly, frail woman this morning," Mayor Michael Nutter said. The woman was safely rescued during the fire.

The 36-year-old mother of two was one of only 150 women serving in the Philadelphia Fire Department, which is made up of more than 2,100 firefighters, paramedics and officers.

“She had a strong work ethic. She prided herself in working at busy engine companies,” said Fire Commissioner Derrick Sawyer, who knew Craig Lewis personally.

Craig Lewis, along with several other crew members, was part of the initial attack group that entered the rowhome that went up in flames around 3:15 a.m. along the 1600 block of Middelton Street, Sawyer said.

A "chimney effect" caused smoke and flames to pour up the basement steps and at the firefighter, he said. At some point, fire command ordered crews out of the home, but Craig Lewis became trapped, Sawyer said.

"After the withdrawal, they realized that firefighter Craig Lewis was missing. They went back in to search for her and they were not able to get her out before she passed," Sawyer said.

Once out of the home, she was given CPR as she was rushed to Albert Einstein Medical Center. Doctors pronounced her dead around 4 a.m.

Craig Lewis is survived by two children -- 16-year-old Mahki Donte Green and 16-month-old Laylani Lewis -- as well as her parents and three siblings.

She worked at Engine 64, which is stationed in the city's Lawncrest neighborhood. She was moved to that company three years ago. But, Tuesday morning, the woman was working with Engine 73, Sawyer said.

"We suffered a tragic loss here this morning," said Mayor Michael Nutter. "This is still under investigation, there are some details we just don't have."

Fire officials have collected Craig Lewis' equipment and are sending it for inspection. One specific area they will be focusing on is whether safety alert device was activated.

The PASS — or Personal Alert Safety System — device, attached to the breathing tank, sends out an audible distress signal, similar to the sound a smoke detector makes. It can be manually activated by a firefighter in distress or will automatically turn on if a firefighter is horizontal and motionless for 20 seconds, Sawyer said.

Crew members learned of their colleague's death as they stood along Middleton Street, just outside the home where she died.

Authorities held drivers around 8:45 a.m. Tuesday on the southbound lanes of the Roosevelt Boulevard as traffic entered Interstate 76 to allow a procession, which transports the woman's body, to pass.

A firefighter and police officers could be seen saluting the passing emergency vehicles.

The last firefighter killed in the line of duty was Capt. Michael Goodwin, who died on April 6, 2013.

Goodwin, a 29-year fire department veteran, was on the roof of a building near 4th and Fitzwater streets when it collapsed. He was pronounced dead at the scene of the Fabric Row blaze.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

The mother of an Escondido woman killed in a car crash Sunday is urging drivers to slow down and calling out city planners to revisit the safety of State Route 76.

Amaranta Kozuch, 29, was killed Sunday when the driver of a Ford F-150 truck slammed into the back of her Kia sedan and took out two other cars at what witnesses said could have been speeds of up to 100 miles per hour.

Her mother, Jeanne Kozuch, learned about the crash when she saw news photographs displayed at the airport Monday morning.

Although upset by the loss of her daughter, with whom she moved to Escondido one year ago, Kozuch expressed more anger than sadness.

"Why? Why are you guys in such a hurry?" she said, calling out San Diego drivers. "Wasn't the life of my daughter important? Or the life of anybody else? So slow down."

Kozuch said her daughter was scheduled to interview with a professor Monday to discuss entering  a Ph.D. program.

"And that's not going to happen," Kozuch said through tears.

"I'm angry. This was senseless," she added. "This was a good human being. Not because she was my daughter; because she was a decent human being."

Kozuch said her daughter was caring and worked with animals doing conservation research at the San Diego Zoo. She was currently working on the reintroduction of the Pacific pocket mouse and spent a month preparing a presentation for her Ph.D. about safety corridors for jaguars across Central America.

She said there are many questions left unanswered and she fully intends to press charges against the driver and the city.

"They need to make an example of this. Then maybe everybody will get the message, too, that you have to be considerate and take your time and care for each other," said Kozuch.

The grieving mother also has a message to the city about the safety issues on the ride where her daughter was killed.

"Where are the city planners? Where are they? Come and talk to me," she said.

As for the driver of the F-150, Kozuch said she wants to know if he is in the country legally, whether he can work here legally and whether he has a valid license and insurance.

"And we want to know many things and we will address them all," she said. "I'm not going anywhere."