LOS ANGELES (AP) — Police investigating a crash outside a Los Angeles nightclub that injured at least 36 people asked for help Monday to find the man they suspect of shooting the driver.
A vehicle of people outside the Vermont Hollywood venue early Saturday along a busy boulevard in East Hollywood, leading bystanders to attack the driver, authorities said.
The driver was later found to have been shot in the lower back, according to police.
Los Angeles police released surveillance photos Monday from cameras near the crash showing a man with a goatee wearing a blue Dodgers jacket and a light blue jersey with the number “5.” Officials are asking for help in identifying him.
The driver was identified Sunday as 29-year-old Fernando Ramirez. He is expected to face a felony charge of assault with a deadly weapon. A phone number for Ramirez could not be found in an online database search and the public defender’s office has not responded to requests for comment on whether one of its attorneys is representing him.
The Vermont Hollywood nightclub was hosting a reggae hip-hop event Friday night, according to its calendar. People were leaving at the end of the event when the car crashed into them, .
“We are deeply saddened by the tragic incident that occurred early Saturday morning outside our venue,” the Vermont Hollywood club said. “We are working closely with law enforcement to ensure the person responsible for this horrific act is held fully accountable.”
Ramirez’s car came to a stop after colliding with several food carts, which became lodged underneath the vehicle, police said.
Injuries ranged from minor pain to serious fractures and lacerations, and some people were briefly trapped beneath the vehicle, police said.
Ramirez has a criminal history that includes an aggravated battery conviction for a 2019 attack on a Black man who worked at a Whole Foods grocery store in Laguna Beach, California. In that same case, he was also convicted of a civil rights misdemeanor, and the assault was considered a hate crime, because he told police that 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 at the time.
He also pleaded guilty in 2014 to battery and a gang-related charge, and in 2021 to domestic violence, records show. 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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Associated Press reporter Ed White contributed from Detroit.
