by Patrick H. Moore
The entire nation is now aware that on Saturday evening at 6:00 Nathan Louis Campbell, 38, drove a black Dodge Avenger onto the Venice boardwalk in Venice, California with the express purpose of killing and maiming innocent people. Venice Beach is home to galleries, restaurants, tattoo shops, and skateboard parks, not to mention an indigenous array of colorful So-Cal characters. It often draws upwards of 150,000 people on summer weekends, some of whom are tourists, many of whom are LA County residents. The Boardwalk runs along the sand a few hundred yards from the ocean.
As is often the case with public crimes in this era of intense surveillance, the perpetrator’s criminal actions were duly recorded on video and described by witnesses. He parked his black Dodge Avenger near the Cadillac Hotel and scoped out the boardwalk where hundreds of people were sitting at cafes, walking along the seashore or shopping for art and jewelry. Twice he walked out to the boardwalk before getting into his large black car. He then carefully maneuvered his vehicle between a storefront and metal poles that had been erected to prevent anyone from driving onto the boardwalk.
Campbell then accelerated. He knocked over two mannequins and an ATM — then he started hitting people, swerving maniacally in an attempt to run straight into his victims. His car struck at least three vendors — a fortune teller, a couple selling jewelry and a woman who does tattooing. The entire incident was over in minutes. “I heard a big ‘boom, boom,’ like the sound of someone going up and down the curb, it was super loud,” said hotel desk clerk Alex Hagan. The driver eventually turned up a side street and headed away from the ocean. The Dodge Avenger was later found abandoned less than two miles from the boardwalk.
People were “stumbling around, blood dripping down their legs, looking confused not knowing what had happened, people screaming,” said Louisa Hodge, who described “blocks and blocks of people just strewn across the sidewalk.”
A 32-year-old Italian woman, Alice Gruppioni, 32, was struck and killed. According to her family in Bologna, Italy, she was spending her honeymoon in California.
11 others were injured, one critically. Two others are hospitalized in serious condition. Among those hit were two women in their 60s.
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Los Angeles Councilman Mike Bonin stated that there have been previous problems with motorists accidentally driving onto the boardwalk, but that four yellow metal poles blocked the roadway used by the hit-and-run driver, who squeezed past the barrier by driving onto a sidewalk.
“The frightening part,” Bonin said, was that this part of the boardwalk was “one of the more protected streets.”
Around 8:00 pm, authorities Nathan Campbell was arrested on suspicion of murder after he walked into a police station in neighboring Santa Monica and said he was involved .
Campbell remains in jail on $1 million bail.
Police declined to discuss a motive but Deputy Chief Kirk Albanese did state that the attack did not appear to be a terrorist act.
The crash was not far from where George Weller, 86, panicked and lost control of his vehicle while driving through a farmer’s market in Santa Monica in 2003, killing 10 people and injuring more than 70 others. Although Weller was doing up to 60 mph when he plowed into the throng, and was convicted of 10 counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence, the authorities were convinced it was entirely accidental, and Weller received a sentence of probation.
This time around it’s going to be different. I would be surprised if Campbell receives a day less than life in prison.
Click here to view our earlier posts on this topic:
Dateline Venice Beach: Murderous Driver Mows Down Innocent Pedestrians