KTVU anchor Frank Somerville was arrested Thursday night on suspicion of driving under the influence after a car crash in Oakland.
The San Jose Mercury News said “multiple police and media sources confirmed Somerville was the one arrested” after a Porsche allegedly driven by Somerville rear ended another car around 7:45 p.m.
The driver who was hit by the Porsche, told the San Francisco Chronicle he “felt a car slam him from behind with enough force to shake him in the driver’s seat.”
He said he “put his Audi S4 in park, flicked on the emergency blinkers and turned off the ignition” and then got out of his car and “approached the driver’s side window of the car that had hit him, a dark gray Porsche.”
“And there’s a gentleman in the car who is not looking at me,” the man told The Chronicle. “He’s gazing straight ahead, gripping the steering wheel. Then he starts accelerating. He’s burning rubber.”
Click here to watch video posted by San Francisco station KRON showing that incident.
Before being suspended by KTVU in September over a disagreement with station management over the station’s reporting of the Gabby Petito murder case, Somerville was mysteriously absent from newscasts in early June after repeatedly slurring his words and having trouble reading off the teleprompter during a May 30 newscast.
After his September suspension, Somerville said he thought he had anchored his last show at the Oakland Fox-owned station.