A person accused of intentionally plowing his car through a crowd in Los Angeles over the weekend has been charged with 37 counts of tried homicide, officers introduced Tuesday.
The suspect — 29-year-old Fernando Ramirez — has additionally been charged with 37 counts of assault with a lethal weapon, “the lethal weapon being the automobile,” Los Angeles County District Lawyer Nathan Hochman stated throughout a press briefing saying the submitting of the costs.
The counts correspond to the 37 victims within the incident, which unfolded round 2 a.m. native time Saturday exterior the music venue The Vermont in East Hollywood, Hochman stated.
Among the many victims, eight suffered “nice bodily damage,” reminiscent of severe fractures and lacerations, the district legal professional stated.
A car sits on the sidewalk after ramming right into a crowd of individuals ready to enter a nightclub alongside a busy boulevard in Los Angeles early Saturday, July 19, 2025, injuring a number of folks.
Damian Dovarganes/AP
“We perceive that this brazen act has shaken the neighborhood,” Hochman stated in the course of the press briefing. “As alleged, and we are going to show in a courtroom of regulation, when he drove that automobile 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. A lot of them had been on the taco truck, or they had been ready on the valet, or they had been ready to get into the membership.”
Over the weekend, senior investigators advised ABC Information the crash occurred after the suspect had been faraway from the nightclub. He then deliberately drove his car onto a sidewalk and into the gang gathered exterior the membership, police stated.
Throughout Tuesday’s briefing, Los Angeles Hearth Division Interim Hearth Chief Ronnie Villanueva described the scene as “extremely chaotic and distressing.”
“It is really a miracle nobody was killed,” Los Angeles Police Division Chief Jim McDonnell stated.
When the car turned disabled, bystanders within the crowd dragged the driving force exterior the automobile and started to bodily assault him, in response to police. Sooner or later in the course of the altercation, police stated a person shot the driving force as soon as within the decrease again then fled the scene on foot.
After being handled at a hospital, Ramirez was initially booked into jail on suspicion of assault with a lethal weapon, police stated. He’s at present being held with out bail and is scheduled to be arraigned on Wednesday, Hochman stated. If convicted as charged, the suspect faces a number of sentences of life in state jail.
Legislation enforcement examine the scene the place a car rammed right into a crowd of individuals ready to enter a nightclub alongside a busy boulevard in Los Angeles early Saturday, July 19, 2025, injuring a number of folks.
Damian Dovarganes/AP
Ramirez has an “intensive historical past of violence,” McDonnell stated. On the time of the incident, he was out on bail in reference to a 2022 home violence case in Orange County, in response to Hochman, who declined additional touch upon the matter right now.
The unidentified one that shot the driving force stays at giant, police stated Tuesday.
“We perceive the feelings concerned, however when the menace had ended and the suspect was now not actively harming others, the usage of lethal drive was each illegal and harmful to all people current,” McDonnell stated. “Our detectives are working diligently to establish and apprehend the shooter.”
