LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles prosecutors introduced felony costs Tuesday in reference to a automotive crash exterior a nightclub over the weekend that injured at the least 37 folks and led to the driving force being shot.
Fernando Ramirez, 29, was charged with 37 counts of tried homicide and 37 counts of assault with a lethal weapon towards the driving force. If convicted, such costs may result in a most life sentence.
Partygoers had been leaving the Vermont Hollywood venue on the finish of a reggae hip-hop occasion early Saturday when a car rammed into the gang alongside a busy boulevard in East Hollywood.
The automotive got here to a cease after colliding with a number of meals carts, which turned lodged beneath the car, and bystanders attacked the driving force, in keeping with police. Accidents ranged from minor to severe fractures and lacerations, and a few folks had been briefly trapped beneath the car.
“We perceive that this brazen act has shaken the group and however for the nice grace of God, this might have been a mass casualty incident” LA County District Legal professional Nathan Hochman stated. He added that eight folks suffered “nice bodily damage.”
Amongst these injured, 23 folks had been transported to hospitals, stated Ronnie Villanueva, Interim Fireplace Chief of the Los Angeles Fireplace Division.
“When he drove that automotive onto that sidewalk, he aimed it at an entire sea of pedestrians that had been in entrance of him on the sidewalk at 2 a.m.,” Hochman stated.
Ramirez is accused of deliberately driving his automotive onto the sidewalk. A cellphone quantity for Ramirez couldn’t be present in an internet database search, and the general public defender’s workplace has not responded to requests for touch upon whether or not one in all its attorneys is representing him.
“This was an unprovoked act of violence that injured 36 folks, some critically,” Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell stated. “It’s actually a miracle that nobody was killed that day.”
Ramirez was later discovered to have been shot within the decrease again, however authorities haven’t recognized the suspected gunman.
Los Angeles police launched surveillance pictures Monday from cameras close to the crash displaying a person with a goatee carrying a blue Dodgers jacket and a light-weight blue jersey with the quantity “5.”
Ramirez has a prison historical past that features a battery and gang-related cost in 2014, an aggravated battery conviction for a 2019 assault on a Black man at a Complete Meals grocery retailer in Laguna Seaside, California, and a home violence cost in 2021, data present.
Ramirez “has proved to be violent to strangers and household alike and clearly has a scarcity of concern for the security of others,” Orange County prosecutors stated in a court docket submitting for the 2019 assault.
A 2024 drunken driving case and 2022 home violence cost had been pending on the time of the nightclub crash, in keeping with data.
Copyright 2025 The Related Press. All rights reserved. This materials might not be printed, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed with out permission.
