Driver purposely plows car into crowd in Los Angeles, injuring at least 30

By Rebecca Fairley Raney, Rick Rojas and Alyce McFadden

A man who had been thrown out of a Los Angeles nightclub and music venue intentionally plowed his car into a crowd outside Saturday, injuring at least 30 people, including seven critically, authorities said.

Officials said the driver, Fernando Ramirez, veered onto the sidewalk about 2 a.m. near the intersection of North Vermont Avenue and Santa Monica Boulevard in the East Hollywood neighborhood. The crowd had come from a night of DJs playing reggaeton and hip-hop that had just ended at the Vermont Hollywood, a performance venue and club.

Ramirez was charged Saturday with one count of assault with a deadly weapon, according to officer Rosario Cervantes, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles Police Department.

The vehicle struck a taco cart and “then ultimately ran into a large number of people who were outside a club in East Hollywood,” Capt. Adam VanGerpen, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles Fire Department, told reporters at the scene Saturday morning.

People in the crowd pulled the driver from the car and security guards outside the venue tried to detain him, Cervantes said. But the crowd surrounded Ramirez and was beating him when police officers arrived, authorities said. As he was being treated, emergency workers discovered a gunshot wound. He had been shot in the buttocks after he was pulled from the car, police said, and he underwent surgery at a hospital. His condition is unclear.

Officials said Ramirez, 29, had been booted from the club earlier in the night for being disruptive and fighting with patrons.

Police were still searching for the man who shot Ramirez.

In all, 23 people were taken to hospitals in the area.

Video apparently recorded by bystanders shows a man being dragged from the driver’s seat of the car and pummeled by people in the crowd, as well as bloodied women lying on the pavement and being carried away.

Later footage captured firefighters treating injured people on tarps on Vermont Avenue, and a small gray car with its front end mangled outside the doors of the venue. The sidewalk was littered with debris, including a pair of sneakers left in front of where the car had stopped.

Ryan Smith, who lives in an apartment across the street from the club, watched a chaotic and confusing scene from his balcony in the immediate aftermath of the crash. He saw a crowd on the sidewalk outside the club’s front doors. “I thought a bunch of people were fighting,” said Smith, 34. Soon, helicopters hovered overhead and police came swarming in, he said.

The club is about a dozen blocks off the 101 freeway, near downtown, surrounded by neighborhoods that have been transformed by gentrification over the past two decades, including Silver Lake and Los Feliz.

Hours after the crash on Saturday, the car had been towed away, and one of the few signs of the melee that morning was the cluster of television news crews stationed in front of the club. Vendors were back to selling sneakers, clothing and toys from their sidewalk stalls.

Workers at nearby businesses said the area was prone to commotion, especially as crowds pour from the club after a show or event. “It’s no surprise,” said Gary Hitchman, 67, a valet parking attendant at a lot next to the venue.

Sandra Savis, the general manager of the Vermont Hollywood, expressed her gratitude for the “swift and compassionate” response of firefighters and police officers. “We are working closely with law enforcement to ensure the person responsible for this horrific act is held fully accountable,” she said in a statement.

The mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, called the crash “a heartbreaking tragedy.”

“The hearts of all Angelenos are with East Hollywood this morning and those impacted,” she said in a social media post on Saturday morning.

The crash adds to what has already been a turbulent year for Los Angeles, with Southern California ravaged by wildfires in January, followed by a showdown between the Trump administration and local officials and residents over immigration raids and protests. On Friday, an explosion at a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department training center killed three deputies.