A man has been charged with 37 counts of attempted murder, according to prosecutors, after intentionally driving his car into a crowd of pedestrians outside a Los Angeles nightclub over the weekend.
According to a statement from the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, Fernando Ramirez, 29, was also charged with 37 counts of assault with deadly weapon in San Clemente, Orange County. He faces multiple life sentences if found guilty.
At the conclusion of a reggae hip-hop event early on Saturday, the suspect is accused of intentionally crashing his car onto the pavement as partygoers departed the Vermont Hollywood venue. Unknown was the cause of the attack, which left 37 people dead.
On Wednesday, Ramirez will be detained without bail and be detained. He was not chosen to represent him, according to the public attorney’s office.
In announcing the charges, LA County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said, “When he drove that car onto that sidewalk, he aimed it at a whole sea of pedestrians.”
Bystanders attacked the driver after the car came to a stop after colliding with several food carts that had become lodged beneath the vehicle, according to police. According to the prosecution, 37 people were hurt overall, with injuries ranging from minor abrasions to severe fractures and lacerations. Eight of the victims are said to have suffered severe bodily injury from Ramirez, according to the criminal complaint.
According to police, officers dispatched to the scene discovered that Ramirez had been shot while being assaulted by onlookers and was later taken to a hospital, where he was unharmed. Police were on the scene on Tuesday while the suspect was trying to track the suspect down.
“We recognize that this obscene deed has shaken the community, and this could have turned out to be a large casualty incident,” Hochman said.
According to Ronnie Villanueva, interim fire chief of the Los Angeles Fire Department, 23 people were taken to hospitals among the injured.
According to Jim McDonnell, the police chief in Los Angeles, “It’s truly a miracle that nobody died that day.”
Records indicate that Ramirez has a history of domestic violence, including a 2014 battery and gang-related felony conviction for an assault on a Black man at a Laguna Beach, California, attack in 2019, and a 2021 domestic violence charge.
In a court filing for the 2019 attack, Orange County prosecutors stated that Ramirez “has demonstrated a lack of concern for the safety of others” and that he “has shown a violent behavior toward both strangers and family members.”
Source: Aljazeera
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