A convicted felon has been indicted for allegedly driving his car through a crowd outside a Los Angeles nightclub this weekend.
Fernando Ramirez, 29, of San Clemente, is charged with 37 counts of attempted murder and 37 counts of assault with a deadly weapon, all felonies, following a crash outside the Vermont Hollywood nightclub on Saturday night.
“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,” LA County District Attorney Nathan Hochman told WPLG.
According to Hochman, eight people sustained “great bodily injury.”
“When he drove that car onto that sidewalk, he aimed it at a whole sea of pedestrians that were in front of him on the sidewalk at 2 a.m.,” Hochman pointed out.
The victims, mostly women, were waiting to enter the Hollywood nightclub when Ramirez allegedly ran them over in his Nissan Versa. The vehicle also passed over a food vending cart and a valet stand.
Adding to the chaos, bystanders allegedly pulled Ramirez from his disabled vehicle and assaulted him. During the altercation, a man pulled out a gun and shot Ramirez. Police are still looking for that suspect.
Ramirez has a lengthy criminal record and was out on parole at the time of the accident.
According to KNBC, he was convicted of felony battery after attacking a man outside a Whole Foods in 2019 and sentenced to prison the following year. It’s unclear if his parole release was related to that conviction.
According to the report, Ramirez has had at least “11 criminal cases ranging from misdemeanors to felonies” since 2014, citing the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
The 2014 charge was gang-related, and Ramirez has a pending 2024 drunk driving case and a pending 2022 domestic violence case that are both unresolved.
He faces life in prison if convicted on the charges related to the car ramming.
