LOS ANGELES (CNS) – Charges are expected Tuesday against a driver who allegedly intentionally plowed into a crowd outside an East Hollywood nightclub after being ejected from the venue, injuring three dozen people.
The crash was reported just before 2 a.m. Saturday in the 4600 block of Santa Monica Boulevard, near Vermont Avenue, according to Los Angeles Fire Department spokeswoman Lyndsey Lantz. The crowd was standing outside The Vermont Hollywood, where a show was taking place.
Seven people were hospitalized in critical condition, six were seriously injured and 10 were in fair condition, Lantz said. Seven people were assessed at the scene and declined hospital transport.
As of Sunday evening, only one patient remained in critical — but stable — condition, and had a broken leg, according to NBC4.
The driver, later identified as Fernando Ramirez, was pulled from the vehicle and shot in the back by an unknown attacker as onlookers set upon him, police said. He was taken into custody, and it later emerged that he has a lengthy criminal history.
The vehicle crashed into a taco stand and a valet stand along the way.
The shooting suspect was described as Hispanic, between 5-feet-6 inches and 5-feet-7 inches tall, and weighing between 150 and 170 pounds. He was last seen wearing a blue Dodgers jacket, a light blue jersey with the number “5,” and blue jeans. He has gauges (wide piercings) in both ears and a goatee. He is bald in photos released by police, who earlier described him as possibly armed with a silver revolver.
The Los Angeles Police Department released an updated photo of the suspect on Monday. Police said at least 36 victims had injuries ranging from minor pain to serious fractures and lacerations, that several were struck by the vehicle and some were briefly trapped beneath it.
At least one food cart become lodged beneath Ramirez’s vehicle, police said.
Video from the scene showed firefighters putting red, yellow and green tarps in the street to triage patients, and a heavily dented car with a shattered windshield and broken headlights on the sidewalk in front of the venue.
Multiple ambulances lined the street.
Officers were dispatched to the scene in response to an “assault with deadly weapon” call and upon arrival determined the driver had also suffered a gunshot wound to his lower back.
He was taken to a hospital, and though his condition was not provided, his injuries did not appear to be life-threatening.
The shooting suspect ran from the scene. He was last seen westbound from Vermont Avenue.
Ramirez, meanwhile, was booked on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and force likely to produce great bodily injury. Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman scheduled a Tuesday afternoon news conference to announce charges in the case.
LAPD Capt. Ben Fernandes told the Los Angeles Times that Ramirez was kicked out of the nightclub for being disruptive before he crashed into the crowd.
Ramirez, of San Clemente, has a lengthy criminal record in Orange County dating back to 2014.
Ramirez was convicted Oct. 17, 2019, in Orange County of a felony count of battery with serious bodily injury, with a sentencing enhancement for a hate crime and a misdemeanor count of hate crime for sucker-punching a Black Whole Foods employee in Laguna Beach in June 2019, according to court records. But the hate crime count and enhancement were overturned on appeal in January 2021 and then dismissed March 26, 2021.
He was sentenced to six years in prison in January 2020 for the hate crime attack, but after those charges were dismissed he was re-sentenced to four years in prison.
Ramirez is currently charged with domestic battery causing injury with a prior conviction for violence and a misdemeanor count of violating a protective-stay-away order for an alleged attack on a girlfriend in San Juan Capistrano on Jan. 28, 2022, according to court records. That case is still pending, with Ramirez due in court for a pretrial hearing July 30 in the Harbor Justice Center in Newport Beach.
Ramirez is also awaiting trial for allegedly driving drunk in Fountain Valley on Aug. 12 of last year.
Ramirez pleaded guilty in December 2021 to a misdemeanor count of assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury and two counts of resisting arrest on Sept. 11, 2021. Prosecutors said in court papers that he resisted arrest after he grabbed a woman by the hair and slammed her into a three-foot-tall cinder block.
Ramirez also pleaded guilty in December 2021 to a misdemeanor count of corporal injury on a spouse or cohabitant on Aug. 24, 2021.
Ramirez pleaded guilty to corporal injury on a spouse or cohabitant and child abuse, both misdemeanors, in June of 2018. He pleaded guilty to felony counts of assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury and gang-related battery in December 2014.
Anyone with information regarding the shooting was urged to call the LAPD’s Rampart Community Police Station at 213-484-3424. Callers who wish to remain anonymous can call Crime Stoppers at 800-222-8477 or visit lacrimestoppers.org.
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