1 Killed as Car Drives Onto California Boardwalk

A hit-and-run driver sped onto the crowded boardwalk at Los Angeles’s Venice Beach on Saturday evening, striking at least a dozen people and killing one, before fleeing, the authorities said.

Witnesses said the car, a dark-colored sedan, had “moved purposefully along the boardwalk,” striking pedestrians, said Brian Humphrey, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Fire Department.

The Los Angeles Police said that a car had been identified and that a suspect had been detained, but no arrest had been made.

In addition to the fatality, one was critically injured, two sustained serious injuries and eight suffered minor injuries, he said. Ten victims were taken to a hospital.

Thousands of tourists had descended on the beachside strip, where they could watch the sunset and buy hemp bracelets and henna tattoos, before the car appeared just after 6 p.m., Mr. Humphrey said.

Photographs posted on Twitter soon afterward by @snapchat, a photo-sharing smartphone app, showed surveillance footage of a dark-blue sedan heading toward pedestrians on the boardwalk, who appeared to be trying to run away.

Other photos on Twitter showed the ensuing chaos on the Ocean Front Walk. Dozens of firefighters tended to victims. Merchants’ tables and chairs were left overturned. And a crowd of hundreds gathered around.

In 2003, a car plowed into a Santa Monica farmers’ market, just a few miles from the Venice boardwalk, killing nine people.

NYTIMES