Brandon Slaughter kept waiting Monday morning for his stepbrother to arrive at their remodeling job site, but the 21-year-old never showed.

As he bided his time, Slaughter scrolled through Facebook and spotted a news report with a photo of a black Jeep Wrangler. The SUV had been reduced to a mangled heap of scorched metal in the middle of a Denver street.

“I seen the picture of the Jeep, and I knew that was my brother,” Slaughter said Tuesday. “I just had the feeling in my heart.”

Denver authorities identified Sebastian Evridge, of Arvada, as the man killed in a fiery, six-vehicle, hit-and-run crash near West 44th Avenue and Federal Boulevard early Monday. Evridge’s passenger, whose name has not been released, was seriously injured.

Police say 25-year-old Ricardo Gardea, whose criminal record dates to 2007 and includes more than 20 arrests, instigated the wreck as the SUV he was driving careened through traffic in the Sunnyside neighborhood about 6:30 a.m.

A Mountain View police officer spotted Gardea’s vehicle before the crash as it blew through a red light at Sheridan Boulevard. The officer estimated the white Dodge Durango was going east at 100 mph on West 44th.

Police say that when Gardea reached Federal, he ran another red light, began pinballing off cars in the crowded intersection, and eventually slammed into the back of Evridge’s Jeep.

Evridge’s vehicle was hurled roughly a block, its gas tank igniting into a mess of red flames and acrid smoke. One witness said he watched in horror while Evridge was engulfed in fire and his passenger was rolling on the pavement trying to extinguish himself.

“We need the paramedics in here quick because this person is still moving, but he, uh, he’s on fire,” a Denver officer, who was one of the first to arrive at the crash, said over police radio.

Facebook posts in Evridge’s memory were mounting on his page Tuesday evening, many of them expressing anger and wanting justice.

Evridge left behind a 7-month-old daughter.

“I know we all have mixed emotions,” Madison Budnick, Evridge’s girlfriend, told The Denver Post. “There’s a lot of hate and a lot of anger. We just hope that there’s justice for Sebastian.

“There has to be.”

Evridge’s family said severe burns covered 65 percent of his body, but they said his death was from a massive head injury.

The Denver medical examiner’s office said Evridge’s cause and manner of death are pending investigation.

Gardea is being held without bail at Denver’s downtown jail on suspicion of vehicular eluding with injury, vehicular assault and second-degree burglary. Denver police plan to recommend that prosecutors charge him with vehicular homicide.

According to a probable-cause statement, an officer said Gardea had “a strong odor of alcohol on his person, watery eyes and slurred speech” after the crash. Gardea told investigators that he was under the influence of marijuana and had been drinking.

After hitting Evridge’s Jeep, Gardea allegedly fled the scene on foot while covered in blood, breaking into a home in the 4300 block of Bryant Street before fleeing when the home owner caught him.

A Denver police officer, the statement says, spotted Gardea running in the area wearing only one sneaker — a black Air Jordan. Investigators found a matching shoe in the wrecked Dodge.

Colorado Bureau of Investigation records show Gardea has been arrested on charges including theft, assault, providing false information to police, resisting arrest and felony menacing.

In 2012, he was arrested in Adams County on suspicion of vehicular eluding, a felony, CBI records show. He also was arrested on that charge in 2012 and 2013 in Arapahoe County.

Authorities say it’s unclear why he allegedly was driving so fast and so recklessly and declined to speculate.

“(Gardea) blew right past (our officer) and ran the red light at 100 mph at Sheridan,” Mountain View police Officer Kirk Firko said Tuesday. “The officer was going to make an attempt to try and stop him, but due to the capabilities of (the officer’s) vehicle, after about four blocks, he lost sight of the suspect.”

When the officer saw a plume of black smoke in the area where the Jeep had disappeared, “he put what happened together,” Firko said.

Elijah Roseboom said he saw Gardea’s Dodge speed in and out of traffic, running red lights, in the moments before the fatal collision.

“He was going really fast, I know that,” Roseboom said. “His tires were even spinning out from how fast he was going.”

Jesse Paul: 303-954-1733, jpaul@denverpost.com or twitter.com/JesseAPaul