An Alameda woman who allegedly helped her child's teenage friend buy alcohol hours before the youth was killed in a drunken-driving crash has been arrested, authorities said Wednesday.
Amelia Chin, 51, was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of furnishing alcohol to a minor, as was Abduhl Azeem Buksh, 45, the clerk and co-owner of the South San Francisco market who allegedly sold alcohol to the girl, said John Carr, a spokesman for the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.
Chin accompanied her child's friend, Margaret Qaqish, 17, into the Good N Rich Dairy Market on South Spruce Avenue the night of Feb. 4, Carr said.
Qaqish bought the alcohol as Chin stood by, Carr said. Buksh allegedly did not check the girl's identification.
Buksh's attorney, John Forsyth, disputed the state's description of what happened, saying that although Qaqish was in the store, surveillance video shows Buksh selling beer and a wine cooler to Chin.
"There's no evidence that any alcohol was sold directly to Ms. Qaqish," he said.
At 3:20 a.m. the next morning, Qaqish was riding in a car with four friends on southbound Highway 101 in Brisbane after leaving a party. The driver, 19-year-old Sean Quintero, who was behind the wheel of his mother's Toyota, had been drinking heavily.
The group was "talking loudly about what radio station to listen to," and Quintero didn't realize that traffic in front of him had stopped because of a crash, said San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe.
Quintero, who was traveling 60 mph, couldn't brake in time and veered to the right, rear-ending a car and pushing that vehicle into a third car.
Qaqish, who was sitting in the middle of the rear seat, was thrown forward. A senior at Baden High School in South San Francisco, she died at a hospital just a week before her 18th birthday. Other passengers suffered minor injuries.
Quintero had a blood-alcohol level of 0.15 percent, nearly twice the legal limit for driving. He pleaded no contest in November to felony drunken driving causing injury and misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter without gross negligence, and faces up to four years and four months in prison when he is sentenced Feb. 3.
"It's really important for people to know that nothing good happens when an adult supplies alcohol to a young person, and in this case the worst occurred," Carr said.
He said investigators are also seeking disciplinary action against Buksh's wife, Arifa Buksh, the other owner of the store.
E-mail Henry K. Lee at hlee@sfchronicle.com.