Woman Dead, Second In Custody After Road Rage Leads To Crash Into Tree In Hollywood
HOLLYWOOD (CBSLA) — A woman was dead Tuesday and another was arrested after a bizarre chain of events that started with a road rage incident on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.
Police said a 26-year-old nightclub manager was dead after her Mercedes crushed her in front of her own apartment building in the 1300 block of North Martel Avenue just before midnight. Her mother identified her as Sophia Ardalan.
"She had a loving heart, a big heart," Gloria Ardalan, the victim's mother, said. "She loved people, and people loved her. She was very gracious and hardworking and just a very devoted mother."
One of the apartment's residents said the noise from the crash woke him up.
"I heard some people screaming," he said. "There was a motorcyclist that was involved in the incident, he was hysterical."
The motorcyclist told police the women's Mercedes had bumped his bike on Sunset Boulevard, and he followed him to the apartment. Witnesses said the women argued with him, then got back into their car.
"The car began to drive away," LAPD Capt. Brian Wendling said. "The driver was ejected, fell out of the car somehow, striking a tree."
The passenger, who was in the car, then got behind the wheel and tried to move the car, instead crushing Ardalan.
The passenger, identified as 27-year-old Samanth Cunha, then ran from the scene. She was later arrested on suspicion of felony hit-and-run.
The motorcyclist remained at the scene and cooperated with investigators. The two women and the motorcyclist did not know each other prior to incident.
Ardalan, who leaves behind her 4-year-old daughter, had just recently become friends with the woman, according to her mother.