Man charged with 37 counts of attempted murder in Los Angeles car-ramming

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By Steve Gorman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -A man accused of deliberately driving his car into a crowd of pedestrians outside a Los Angeles nightclub over the weekend, injuring dozens of people, some critically, was charged on Tuesday with 37 counts of attempted murder, prosecutors said.

The suspect, Fernando Ramirez, 29, a resident of San Clemente, also was charged with 37 counts of assault with a deadly weapon, according to a statement from the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.

If convicted, he would face multiple sentences of life in prison, the statement said. Ramirez, currently being held without bail, was to be arraigned on Wednesday.

Authorities have offered no possible motive for the car-ramming, which remains under investigation.

According to the Los Angeles district attorney, Ramirez also has a case of domestic violence pending against him in Orange County.

The incident occurred at about 2 a.m. on Saturday, when a motorist suddenly, and intentionally, drove into a sidewalk outside Vermont Hollywood, a popular live music venue on the eastern edge of Hollywood, authorities said.

A total of 37 people were hurt, with injuries ranging from minor abrasions to serious fractures and lacerations, prosecutors said. The criminal complaint alleges that Ramirez inflicted great bodily injury to eight of the victims.

Police said officers dispatched to the scene found that the driver had been shot while being assaulted by onlookers and was himself taken to a hospital, his condition unknown. A man suspected of shooting the motorist fled the scene on foot, according to police.

(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Leslie Adler)