38-year-old Nathan Campbell has been charged with murder and is being held on $1 million bond after apparently attempting to run over as many people as possible on the Venice Beach boardwalk on Saturday evening. The woman he killed was 32-year-old Alice Gruppioni, an Italian on her honeymoon.
YouTube footage of the crash and the ABC News report:
Campbell injured twelve other in the rampage; two had serious injuries, and one was critically injured. According to one witness, Laura Blackburn, "The boardwalk was packed with people, and he sped up and purposefully—it looked like purposefully—was just swerving back and forth to run over as many people as he could," writes CNN.
At 5 PM with sunset on the way, it was the busiest time of day for the boardwalk, according to Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Brian Humphrey. "There were people flying, laying on the ground, tents flying everywhere. If he wanted to kill people, he came on a perfect time, 5 p.m. on a Saturday in the summer in Venice Beach," he said. According to Gawker, Campbell eventually left the car and fled before turning himself in around 7 PM. There is a news conference scheduled for today, but Campbell’s motive is still unknown.