Police say the driver intentionally targeted the group, but the motive for the attack, which injured 37 people, wasn’t immediately clear.
LOS ANGELES — A driver accused of intentionally crashing his vehicle into a crowd of people outside a nightclub in Los Angeles has been formally charged with 37 counts of attempted murder, according to prosecutors on Tuesday.
The suspect, Fernando Ramirez, aged 29, also faces 37 counts of assault with a deadly weapon. If found guilty, he could be sentenced to multiple life terms in prison.
The allegations against Ramirez suggest he deliberately drove his vehicle onto a sidewalk where attendees were exiting the Vermont Hollywood venue following a reggae hip-hop event that took place early Saturday. Authorities are still investigating the motive behind the incident, which resulted in injuries to 37 individuals.
A phone number for Ramirez could not be found in an online database search, and the public defender’s office said they have not been appointed to represent him.
“When he drove that car onto that sidewalk, he aimed it at a whole sea of pedestrians,” LA County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said in announcing the charges.
The car came to a stop after colliding with several food carts, which became lodged underneath the vehicle, and bystanders attacked the driver, police said. Injuries ranged from minor to serious fractures and lacerations, and some people were briefly trapped beneath the vehicle.
After fleeing the scene, Ramirez was later found to have been shot in the lower back, but authorities have not identified the suspected gunman. Officials said Tuesday they were still looking for the shooter.
“We understand that this brazen act has shaken the community and but for the good grace of God, this could have been a mass casualty incident” Hochman said. He added that eight people suffered “great bodily injury.”
Among those injured, 23 people were taken to hospitals, said Ronnie Villanueva, Interim Fire Chief of the Los Angeles Fire Department.
Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said “it’s truly a miracle that no one was killed that day.”
Ramirez has a criminal history that includes a battery and gang-related charge in 2014, an aggravated battery conviction for a 2019 attack on a Black man at a Whole Foods grocery store in Laguna Beach, California, and a domestic violence charge in 2021, records show.
In the 2019 attack, he was also convicted of a civil rights misdemeanor, and the assault was considered a hate crime because he told police he hated Black people. But a California appeals court in 2021 said he made that statement after invoking his Fifth Amendment rights, and only the battery conviction was allowed to stand. Ramirez was released from custody after more than two years in jail and prison.
Ramirez “has proved to be violent to strangers and family alike and clearly has a lack of concern for the safety of others,” Orange County prosecutors said in a court filing for the 2019 attack.
A 2024 drunken driving case and 2022 domestic violence charge were pending at the time of the nightclub crash, according to records.
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