Shirtless Driver Wanted After Crashing Stolen Car Into Scooter Rider Going Wrong Way Down One-Way Street In Downtown LA
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — Help is needed to identify a man who abandoned a stolen car in Downtown LA immediately after crashing head-on into a scooter rider, leaving her with severe injuries.
The crash happened Wednesday at about 1:10 p.m., as a 30 -year-old woman was riding an electric scooter the wrong-way on one-way 4th Street, just past Main Street. A 2020 Chevy Spark that had been stolen out of the Wilshire Division was driving eastbound on 4th Street from Spring Street and crashed head-on with the scooter rider and the parked car immediately behind her.
Surveillance video of the crash shows the woman being launched into the air, and landing on the sidewalk outside of the camera's frame. The LAPD says she landed head first onto the sidewalk.
The woman, who was not identified, was admitted into the ICU with severe injuries, but police say she is in stable condition and is expected to survive.
The driver got out of the car shirtless, appears to first run across the street. He was later seen running down a sidewalk, with the Chevy Spark visible behind him.
The driver was described as a Hispanic man between 20 and 25 years old, from 5-foot-6 to 5-foot-10, and about 150 to 175 pounds, with short-cropped black hair, a mustache and a goatee. He was last seen wearing gray pants with possible camouflage patterns, white shoes with black striping, and had a tattoo on the right side of his chest with unknown writing.
Wednesday's crash is just the latest hit-and-run this month involving a scooter rider. Scooter riders have been severely injured in crashes near the Los Angeles National Veterans Park in West LA and another crash in South LA in which a woman was arrested.
A reward of up to $25,000 is available to anyone with information about this or other hit-and-run collisions. Anyone with information about this crash or the man involved can contact LAPD Central Traffic Investigator Diaz at (213) 833-3713 or via email at 36160@lapd.online.