SUV Smashes Into Echo Park Apartments

Around noon on Saturday, an unidentified male driver was involved in a hit-and-run accident at the corner of Lake Shore Avenue and Berkeley Avenue in Echo Park, crashing his sport utility vehicle into a building before fleeing.

Driving through the four-way intersection, the driver evidently ran through a stop sign, smashed into an apartment’s exterior wall and backed up onto the street before leaving his car and, according to one neighbor, going home.

“It sounded like an explosion,” said Laura Jennings, a neighbor who lives in the building that was driven into. “It felt like an earthquake.”

Moments after the car, a Nissan Pathfinder SUV, struck the building, neighbors poured out onto the street to investigate. Victor Medina, who lives in the house next door, said he knew the driver and told him not to leave the scene of the accident.

“I saw my friend was the driver, and he may have been drinking, I don’t know,” said Medina. “But he told me he’s been suffering from chest pains, and he also lost his step-son last week.”

Massive Hole

Police officers and firemen at the scene revealed a massive hole in the side of the apartment building.

Carmelita Russell, the resident who lives in the apartment directly above the damaged section, said she wasn’t home at the time. Fortunately, she said, no part of her home was damaged.

LAPD Officer Jason Oho, who responded to the scene, was searching the interior of the car for registration and any other clues that could explain what happened.

“We’re going to impound the car,” he said. “As of now, it’s a hit and run. And as for whether or not the driver was intoxicated, its hard to determine,” because “he may have had a drink as soon as he got home.”

But with so many witnesses who can identify the driver, it may be difficult to claim the car was stolen or that he had a drink afterwards, Oho said. “We’re going to look into all the proper avenues of how to handle this.”

“It’s scary,” said Russell. “Anybody could have been walking there. There’s a lot of kids in this neighborhood.“