Inland Valley

By LYNN ELBER and ANDREW DALTON

Anne Heche is on life support after suffering a brain injury in a fiery crash a week ago and her survival isn’t expected, according to a statement from a representative.

The actor, who is in a coma and in critical condition, is being kept on life support for possible organ donation, according to the statement released Thursday night on behalf of her family and friends.

Heche, who’s been hospitalized at the Grossman Burn Center at West Hills hospital north of Los Angeles, suffered a “severe anoxic brain injury,” the statement said. Such an injury is caused by a sustained lack of oxygen to the brain.

“She is not expected to survive,” the statement said. “It has long been her choice to donate her organs and she is being kept on life support to determine if any are viable.”

On the morning of Aug. 5, Heche’s car smashed into a house in a neighborhood in west Los Angeles and a fire erupted with the car embedded inside the home.

Related story: Anne Heche in hospital, ‘stable’ after fiery car crash

Earlier Thursday, police said they were investigating Heche for driving under the influence. Detectives with a search warrant took a sample of her blood and found narcotics in her system, LAPD spokesperson Officer Jeff Lee said.

Toxicology tests, which can take weeks to complete, must be performed to identify the drugs more clearly and to differentiate them from any medication she may have been given for treatment at the hospital.

Evidence is still being gathered from the crash, police said, and they would present a case to prosecutors if it is warranted when the investigation is complete.

Related story: Anne Heche remains in critical condition as police continue to investigate her car crash

A representative for Heche declined comment on the investigation.

On Tuesday, Heche spokesperson Heather Duffy Boylston said she had been in a coma since after the accident, with burns that required surgery and lung injuries that required the use of a ventilator to breathe.

“Anne had a huge heart and touched everyone she met with her generous spirit. More than her extraordinary talent, she saw spreading kindness and joy as her life’s work — especially moving the needle for acceptance of who you love,” Thursday’s statement said. “She will be remembered for her courageous honesty and dearly missed for her light.”

Heche, 53, was among the most prominent film stars in Hollywood in the late 1990s, playing opposite actors including Johnny Depp (“Donnie Brasco”) and Harrison Ford (“Six Days, Seven Nights”). In a 2001 memoir, she discussed her lifelong struggles with mental health.

She recently had recurring roles on the network TV series “Chicago P.D.” and “All Rise,” and in 2020 was a contestant on “Dancing With the Stars.”

By FRED SHUSTER

A bartender told a federal jury Thursday of being shown gruesome cell phone images of Kobe Bryant’s remains by an off-duty Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputy who had been on the scene of the helicopter crash that killed the Lakers star and eight others two days earlier.

The testimony of Victor Gutierrez focused on the night of Jan. 28, 2020, when a friend, rookie Deputy Joey Cruz, came into the Baja California Bar & Grill in Norwalk for a beer and showed the bartender and a customer graphic crash site photos stored on his personal cell phone.

“He said he had some photos if I wanted to see them,” Gutierrez testified. “I said, ‘Yeah, kinda.’ It was just (body) parts … scattered human remains.”

Vanessa Bryant and Orange County financial adviser Chris Chester, who lost his wife and daughter in the crash, are suing Los Angeles County for unspecified millions of dollars for negligence and invasion of privacy over pictures of the remains of their loved ones that they allege were needlessly snapped and shared by first responders.

While the county admits that Cruz had a lapse of judgment when he showed the photos — which apparently also included images of the body of the Bryants’ 13-year-old daughter Gigi — all crash-site images taken by county officials have long been deleted and none were disseminated among the public.

As questioning centered on the images and the bartender’s reaction to them, Kobe’s widow sobbed and left the seventh-floor courtroom in downtown Los Angeles.

Surveillance footage from the bar apparently shows Cruz displaying photos for a wincing Gutierrez and another man, and making gestures as if mimicking the catastrophic injuries suffered by the victims.

Asked if Cruz was laughing while showing the pictures, the bartender said he was “100% sure” that the levity apparent on the surveillance video had nothing to do with the cell phone images.

“What type of human being would laugh about human remains … you’ve gotta be psycho to do that,” Gutierrez told jurors, adding that he believed the deputy came into the bar because “he just needed to talk to someone” about what he’d seen at the crash site.

But after Cruz left the bar, the video appears to show Gutierrez excitedly telling at least five people at the bar what he’d seen and seems to demonstrate in gestures the condition of the victims — including Kobe Bryant’s decapitated body.

Among those that heard Gutierrez’s description that night was Rafael Mendez Jr., a member of a local softball team that often stopped at the bar after games.

Mendez provided a lighter moment Thursday when asked the name of his team.

“Past Our Prime,” he replied.

“Is that (description) true?” one of Bryant’s attorneys asked.

“For most of my teammates, it is.”

Mendez testified that he was shocked and upset when Gutierrez said that a sheriff’s deputy had just shown him the crash-site photos.

“I was in disbelief, disappointed, disgusted and angry,” Mendez said. “And I felt I had to do the right thing and tell the sheriff’s department what I’d seen.”

As he sat in his car in the driveway of his Cerritos home later that night, Mendez logged on to the sheriff’s information bureau website and filled out a form, alerting the department that a deputy who had been at the Kobe Bryant crash site was “showing pictures of his decapitated body” to people at the Baja California Bar & Grill.

Mendez was asked why he made the complaint to the LASD almost immediately after leaving the bar, and even before opening his front door.

“I had to get it out,” he replied, becoming emotional. “I had to inform the sheriff’s department. I wanted to sleep well that night. I felt a sense of betrayal. Being a deputy, I felt he had the public’s trust riding on his shoulders. And when he showed pictures of dead bodies, he was betraying the public’s trust.”

Mendez — who at the time was expecting the birth of his first daughter — said he “envisioned” himself and his child in the sort of loving relationship that Kobe Bryant had with Gigi.

The day after sending the complaint, LASD investigators went to the bar and got the surveillance footage showing Cruz taking out his cell phone and calling Gutierrez over to look at something.

On Jan. 30, 2020, Mendez testified, he spoke to Capt. Jorge Valdez, the head of the sheriff’s information bureau, about the complaint.

In cross-examination, Mira Hamshall, lead outside counsel for the county in the litigation, pointed out that Mendez hadn’t actually seen Cruz’s phone.

Bryant’s suit against the county has been combined with that of Chester, who lost wife Sarah and 13-year-old daughter Payton in the tragedy, and makes many of the same allegations.

Both Bryant and Chester contend they suffered emotional distress when county personnel took photos at the crash scene for no legitimate reason and shared them with other law enforcement and members of the public.

In her opening statement Wednesday, Hashmall countered that first responders correctly documented the crash scene while it was still light in the remote mountainous region near Calabasas.

“They responded, they contained that scene, they stayed there day and night,” Hashmall told the 10-member civil jury, adding that while the county sympathizes with the “unspeakable loss” suffered by the Bryant and Chester families, the case is about whether the county publicly disseminated crash site photos in violation of the plaintiffs’ constitutional rights.

“They have no evidence that the photos have gotten to the public,” she said, insisting that the county has successfully worked to prevent its crash site photos from entering the public domain.

Bryant and Chester allege that at least 11 sheriff’s personnel and a dozen firefighters shared the photos within 24 hours of the crash.

Hashmall promised jurors that Cruz will take the stand and testify that he had a lapse in judgment when he showed the photos to his bartender friend. The deputy “regrets it every day,” the attorney said.

California legislation growing out of Bryant’s allegations passed two years ago, making it illegal for peace officers and other first responders to take unauthorized photographs of dead people at the scene of a crime or accident.

The trial resumes Friday morning.

“Mailbag” gives insight into the comments I get from my readers — good, bad, or in-between — and my thoughts about their feedback.

I’ve been a business journalist far too long, so excuse my cranky old-guy thinking, but I know the economy is at a major turning point when the media becomes the assumed problem.

You see, this logic suggests that if journalists stopped distributing “bad” news (the definition of “bad” is up to the reader’s viewpoint) folks would act differently, and the economic problem would vanish. Got it?

And no industry emotes that blame-the-messenger passion with greater energy than real estate.

California renters could save $112,000 vs. owning over 5 years

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My recent columns suggesting California’s housing market looks a tad dicey — even suggesting that renting could be better than buying at this moment — filled my inbox with comments like this one: “They should title Lansner’s column, ‘Weekly Rubbish.’ “

Here is a sample of what my readers think, and my reply to their critiques.

Reader: “If you and other reporters predict a softening in the real estate market, of course, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. People will stop buying and want to wait for the media-predicted crash and lowering of home prices. Being in business for almost 40 years, I have seen many cycles and in most cases, it starts with the media.”

Me: The best financial decisions are made using a wide assortment of information, both the pros and cons. If people are making a huge investment such as buying a home based on one person’s view — whether that be a family member or friend, a real estate professional or investment adviser, or a journalist — that’s a mistake.

And there is plenty of real estate industry hype countering one jaded columnist’s viewpoint that California homes are vastly overpriced today.

Reader: “You are paid by hedge fund managers to stoke fear in average Americans about holding on to their houses — the only way left for ordinary people to build family wealth. The people who pay you are snatching up income property because they have so much money they don’t know what to do with it. They want to make renters out of the rest of America. You are helping them achieve their goal. Do you feel good about that?” 

Me: Yes, the owners of my newspaper group do also own hedge funds. I’ve never heard a word from them, nor have gotten any direction from my Southern California News Group bosses about any anti-ownership agenda I should follow with my work. Offering my audience information about the risks of homebuying in these uncertain times isn’t part of some grand plot. Instead, it’s a mild antidote to the “every day is a good day to buy” mantra from the real estate transaction industry.

PS: Folks considering a home to own for a long time worry far less about “timing the market” and focus more on how much home they can comfortably afford. If the price and payment meet their budget, go for it!

Reader: “You have done a disservice to those on-the-fence buyers wondering if they should jump in. Wealth is made in real estate. Scaring folks off with low ball numbers as your premise is a waste of time.”

Me: You highlight a key problem. We have a system titled toward wealth-building in housing, and that profit motive is also what makes it such a financially challenging purchase for so many people. You also overlook the many other ways to build wealth, starting with having a savings mentality and placing spare cash in a diversified basket of assets.

Reader: “I can’t tell you how much I not only strongly disagree with you saying renting can be better or save you money. It is NEVER EVER better to rent than own. The numbers don’t lie. You will always be ahead by owning, assuming you can afford the mortgage.”

Me: You do recall the mid-2000s when “assuming you can afford the mortgage” was an afterthought? Plenty of renters learned a hard lesson in that era — ownership isn’t for everyone.

Reader: “How you got to your premise was all predicated on No Money Down. What universe are you inhabiting?” 

Me: To fairly compare buying to renting, financially speaking, you have to account for the often six-figure investment — the “downpayment” — used to lower a buyer’s house payments and qualify for a mortgage. That’s no small sum of money and it’s a “cost” to buyers. So, I eliminated it from my analysis to make for more apples-to-apples math.

Reader: “After 30 years, the owner has no mortgage payment and the renter still owes rent.”

Me: Yes, that can be true — with the one big caveat: I don’t want to think about how much maintenance and upkeep has cost me after 35 years of ownership — not to mention property taxes and home insurance. My mutual fund managers never call up and say, “We’ve got a leak in a wall, help us pay for that!”

When is it OK to say the housing market has crashed?

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Reader: “Will prices fall so hard that we have a wave of homeowner loan defaults like 2008-10? Doubt that will happen this time, but a more ‘normal’ housing recession seems likely in the next year or two.”

Me: Seems reasonable to me. And thanks for acknowledging that housing dips come in many shapes and sizes. Look at the 1990s, when California home prices essentially went sideways for six-plus years.

Reader: “You have a fresh take on the real estate market and some good perspectives on why, in California right now, buying is a tough sell vs. renting — something you won’t hear from industry proponents.”

Me: It’s certainly possible with current market dynamics that a renter who delays a purchase — and ups their savings — could be in a stronger position to buy in a few years.

Thanks for the kind words. I don’t get paid by my hedge fund owners to automatically echo what the real estate industry says.

Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He welcomes feedback from readers! Hew can be reached at jlansner@scng.com

A woman accused of driving through a red light into several vehicles in a busy intersection in Windsor Hills — a horrific crash that killed an infant, a pregnant woman, her unborn fetus and three other people — will face six counts of murder among other charges, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said Monday, Aug. 8.

Nicole Lorraine Linton, 37, remained in custody in lieu of $9 million bail at the Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood.

She could face 90 years to life in prison if convicted of all charges, The Associated Press reported.

Linton, a traveling nurse from Houston, made her first court appearance Monday after being released from a hospital over the weekend. Linton appeared in a wheelchair, and didn’t enter a plea. Her arraignment was continued to October.

She was ordered held without bail pending a bail hearing next week, the AP reported.

“Today, we begin the process of holding accountable the person responsible for the deaths of six people, including a pregnant woman, and their families,” District Attorney George Gascón said Monday in a statement.

“This is a case that will always be remembered for the senseless loss of so many innocent lives as they simply went about their daily routines,” he said.

Linton is being accused of murder in all six deaths. However, she can only be charged with five counts of vehicular manslaughter because that criminal charge cannot legally be applied to someone who has not been born yet, Gascon during a news conference Monday.

Gascon said Linton was in California for work at the time of the crash in Windsor Hills, an unincorporated community just north of Inglewood. She allegedly was behind the wheel of the black Mercedes-Benz seen in surveillance footage speeding into the intersection of Slauson and La Brea avenues at about 1:40 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 4,  slamming into several cars

At least two cars burst into flames just a few yards from a gas station’s pumps, California Highway Patrol officials have said.

One witness told Southern California News Group that he heard what sounded like a car speeding downhill and then an explosion. Others described flames creating heat so intense would-be good Samaritans and even firefighters were held back for a bit.

Cars ended up strewn about, with bystanders running in all directions.

Besides killing six, the chain-reaction collision involving eight vehicles injured eight people.

It was not immediately clear why Linton allegedly sped through a red light on Thursday. Police did not immediately find evidence to suggest she had been drinking, Gascon said.

Coroner’s officials have identified three of the deceased: Alonzo Quintero, 11 months; Asherey Ryan, 23; and the child she was pregnant with, Armani Lester. According to a GoFundMe campaign that had raised more than $140,000, Alonzo was Ryan’s son.

They had been headed to a doctor’s appointment for the yet-born baby, Ryan’s sister has said.

“A young family was destroyed in the blink of an eye,” Gascón said.

Linton was taken to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center with major injuries, and later arrested by the CHP said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

Anne Heche has remained in critical condition since crashing her vehicle into a Los Angeles residence on Friday, according to a new representative for the actress.

“Over the weekend a representative stated that Anne was in stable condition but that information was inaccurate. She has always remained in critical condition, slipping into a coma following the accident,” a spokesperson for Heche told CNN in a statement Monday. “She has a significant pulmonary injury requiring mechanical ventilation and burns that require surgical intervention. She is currently being treated at the Grossman Burn Center.”

Earlier Monday, CNN reported that Heche is under investigation for misdemeanor DUI and hit and run, according to LAPD Officer Annie Hernandez.

Investigators obtained a warrant for a blood draw on the day of the incident. They are still awaiting those results, Hernandez said. Once the investigation is complete, the case will be referred to the LA City Attorney’s office, Hernandez added.

Heche’s representative told CNN she has not been able to meet with investigators yet as a result of her injuries.

Meantime, friends of the woman whose home was destroyed in the crash say she “narrowly escaped physical harm.”

Lynne Mishele was inside her residence where Heche crashed and fire broke out, officials told CNN. Neighbors John and Jennifer Durand have started a GoFundMe for Mishele to help her rebuild her life.

In the description for the fundraiser, the Durands state that Mishele lost everything, except for a “few damaged sentimental belongings.”

“Lynne lives with her beautiful pups Bree and Rueban, and tortoise Marley in the Mar Vista home that was destroyed this week by a car driving into the home at a high rate of speed, catching the house on fire,” the GoFundMe states. “Lynne and her family very narrowly escaped physical harm, and for that we are very, very grateful. The home, however, was completely burned.”

Roy Morgen, another neighbor of Mishele, told CNN affiliate KCAL/KCBS that Heche’s car stopped about “two feet away from where she was sitting.”

“She was pretty lucky,” Morgen said of Mishele. “She’s in shock… it still hasn’t hit her yet. There’s nothing left in the house. Everything was ruined.”

“Lynne lost her entire lifetime of possessions, mementos, all equipment for her business,” the GoFundMe states. “With firefighters’ help, she was able to pull a few damaged sentimental belongings from the wreckage. Everything else is gone.”

CNN has contacted Mishele and the Durands for comment.

Heche suffered “severe burns and has a long recovery ahead,” a source previously told CNN. “Her team and her family are still trying to process what led up to the crash.”

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LOS ANGELES — Character actor Roger Mosley, who appeared in a slew of television shows and films in the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s but was best known for his regular appearances on “Magnum, P.I.,” died Sunday at the age of 83, his daughter announced.

“Roger E. Mosley, my father, your friend, your ‘coach Mosley’ your ‘TC’ from Magnum P.I., passed away at 1:17am,” Ch-a Mosley posted on Facebook. “He was surrounded by family as he transcended peacefully. We could never mourn such an amazing man. He would HATE any crying done in his name. It is time to celebrate the legacy he left for us all. I love you daddy. You loved me too. My heart is heavy but I am strong. I will care for mommy, your love of almost 60 years. You raised me well and she is in good hands. Rest easy.”

Mosley died Sunday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center from injuries he sustained in a car crash Thursday in Lynwood, Ch-a Mosley told the Los Angeles Times.

After the crash, which left him paralyzed from the shoulders down, Mosley was taken to St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood and then transferred to Cedars-Sinai, according to The Times. His death was first reported by Rich Gonzalez of PrepCalTrack, a website which covers high school track and field in California.

Mosley played helicopter pilot Theodore “T.C.” Calvin on “Magnum, P.I.,” which was a smash hit for CBS from 1980-88. He came out of retirement to play Booky, T.C.’s barber, on a “Magnum” reboot episode in 2019.

Mosley was born in Los Angeles and attended Jordan High School.

In addition to “Magnum, P.I.,” he appeared on “Night Court,” “Kung Fu,” “Starsky and Hutch,” “Kojak,” “The Rockford Files,” “Baretta” and “Sanford and Son.”

On the big screen, his film roles included 1974’s “McQ” with John Wayne, 1977’s “Semi-Tough” with Burt Reynolds and Kris Kristofferson, 1990’s “Heart Condition” with Denzel Washington and Bob Hoskins, and 1994’s “Pentathlon” with Dolph Lundgren.

Mosley also portrayed heavyweight champion Sonny Liston in the 1977 Muhammad Ali biopic, “The Greatest.”

Mosley was also a longtime high school track and field coach. He was an assistant coach at Monrovia High School at the time of his death.

“My dad was always a man of the community,” Ch-a Mosley told The Times. “Even while famous and having this successful career in Hollywood, he continued to work with youth.

“He personally coached me. I was his first hurdler that he trained to run the 400-meter hurdles, and he made me into a champion. Under his coaching, I learned what it meant to win. … He made sure that I had a work ethic and he instilled in me a strong moral compass to stand on my own two feet and to get a good education and have all the tools I needed to be successful in life.”

Mosley also coached a variety of other sports, including swimming and basketball.

“He was always giving knowledge,” Monrovia High track Mike Knowles told The Times. “If you asked him something, you would get the complete answer, not just a part-answer. … He was an encyclopedia of knowledge on different things.”

Knowles met Mosley while training Ch-a Mosley at John Muir High School in Pasadena before he and Mosley became longtime friends and coaching partners.

Knowles told The Times Mosley was a perfectionist who repeatedly declined offers to coach track and field at the college level because he preferred to discover young local talent and mold them into champions.

“He was a tough coach,” Knowles told The Times. “But all his athletes respected him. … They may not always have liked his coaching methods, but every one that he ever coached that went on to college or to the pros … came back and thanked him for being tough on them and teaching them how it’s going to be in life. And that’s what he did to all of us, basically.

“He didn’t have to do that. He had money. He had fame. He didn’t have to go back to the community and put his time in there. But he did.”

LOS ANGELES — Actress Anne Heche was in the hospital Saturday following an accident in which her car smashed into a house and flames erupted, a spokeswoman said.

“Anne is currently in stable condition. Her family and friends ask for your thoughts and prayers and to respect her privacy during this difficult time,” Heather Duffy Boylston, Heche’s friend and podcast partner, said in a statement.

Heche’s speeding car came to a T-shaped intersection and ran off the road and into the house in the Mar Vista section of Los Angeles’ westside shortly before 11 a.m. Friday, Los Angeles police Officer Tony Im said.

The car came to a stop inside the two-story house and started a fire that took nearly 60 firefighters more than an hour to douse, the Los Angeles Fire Department said.

Television news video showed a blue Mini Cooper Clubman, badly damaged and burned, being towed out of the home, with a woman sitting up on a stretcher and struggling as firefighters put her in an ambulance.

No other injuries were reported, and no arrests have been made. Police detectives are investigating.

A native of Ohio, Heche first came to prominence on the NBC soap opera “Another World” from 1987 to 1991. She won a Daytime Emmy Award for the role.

In the late 1990s she became one of the hottest actors in Hollywood, a constant on magazine covers and in big-budget films. She co-starred with Johnny Depp in 1997’s “Donnie Brasco”; with Tommy Lee Jones in 1997’s “Volcano”; with Harrison Ford in 1998’s “Six Days, Seven Nights”; with Vince Vaughn and Joaquin Phoenix in 1998’s “Return to Paradise,” and with an ensemble cast in the original 1997 “I Know What You Did Last Summer.”

Her relationship with Ellen DeGeneres from 1997 to 2000 heightened her fame and brought immense public scrutiny.

In the fall of 2000 soon after the two broke up, Heche was hospitalized after knocking on the door of a stranger in a rural area near Fresno, California. Authorities said she had appeared shaken and disoriented, and spoke incoherently to the residents.

In a memoir released the following year, “Call Me Crazy,” Heche talked about her lifelong struggles with mental health and a childhood of abuse.

She was married to camera operator Coleman Laffoon from 2001 to 2009. The two had a son together. She had another son during a relationship with actor James Tupper, her co-star on the TV series “Men In Trees.”

Heche has worked consistently in smaller films, on Broadway, and on TV shows in the past two decades. She recently had recurring roles on the network series “Chicago P.D.” and “All Rise,” and in 2020 was a contestant on “Dancing With the Stars.”

“Better Together,” the podcast hosted by Heche and Duffy Boylston, is described online as a celebration of friendship.

A 37-year-old registered nurse accused of speeding through a red light in Windsor Hills and plowing into an intersection crowded with vehicles, killing six people and injuring another eight, has been arrested on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter, authorities said on Friday, Aug. 5, a day after the fiery, chain-reaction collision.

Update: Nurse will face 6 murder charges for Windsor Hills collision

It was unclear why the driver of the black Mercedes-Benz blew through the light at about 1:40 p.m. Thursday before striking multiple vehicles, at La Brea and Slauson avenues, with her car and at least one vehicle bursting into flames. As many as six vehicles were involved.

Authorities so far had not disclosed whether they believe drugs, alcohol or texting factored into the crash.

 

The woman suspected of causing the crash, Los Angeles resident Nicole Lorraine Linton, survived with moderate injuries, California Highway Patrol officials said. She is a registered nurse in California and Texas, according to public records.

She was being treated at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center for major injuries, the CHP said.

An infant boy, a pregnant woman — Aherey Ryan, 23, of Los Angeles — and her unborn male fetus were among the six who died. The other names had not been released by officials.

“I drove to the scene,” Ryan’s sister, Seana Kerr, told ABC7 Eyewitness News. “I ran past the police officers just because I wanted to feel her energy one more time. Yesterday, I truly lost it. My family was broken yesterday, and we’re still broken.”

Ryan was headed to a doctor’s appointment with her son.

“Everybody’s heartbroken,” Kerr told ABC7. “She literally walked out the door, because we all live together, and she said, ‘Ok, I love y’all. I’m going to my doctor’s appointment to check up on the baby.’

“We asked, ‘Oh, why don’t you leave our nephew here?’ She said, ‘No, I want to take my son for a ride.’ So, knowing that really, really broke our hearts.”

Friday morning, soot covered the green “Slauson” sign above where the collision and the fire had erupted. Dark spots covered the ground beneath a Los Angeles County Public Works crew as it replaced stoplights that had been damaged.

Across the street, a half-dozen Windsor Hills residents gathered around a row of candles, flowers and stuffed animals left in memory of the six killed in the crash. One woman made the sign of the cross and appeared to be praying over the offerings.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson, 74, lives nearby. He was in his backyard when he heard a car “careening” downhill on La Brea and into the intersection before what sounded like an explosion.

He was at the intersection before firefighters arrived, and he saw two people dead in the street near wrecked cars that were engulfed in flames.

Bystanders were screaming and running in all directions. Some attempted to approach the fires to help but were driven back by the heavy heat that persisted for at least 30 minutes.

“There was nothing they could do,” Hutchinson said. “And when firefighters got here, even they had to hang back. The fire was that intense.”

After firefighters arrived and began extinguishing the blaze, Hutchinson saw one pull a child seat from a burned vehicle.

Hutchinson, president of the Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable, said he and many of the nearby residents have repeatedly complained to county officials about cars speeding downhill on La Brea and blasting across Slauson. The intersection, he added, has become a hotspot for street takeovers.

La Brea and Slauson opened again at 3:30 a.m. Friday, and hours later traffic was being managed by temporary stop signs.

Windsor Hills is unincorporated county territory north of Inglewood and south of the I-10 Freeway. The I-405 is to the west.

“My heart goes out to the families that lost loved ones in the horrific car collision that occurred yesterday in Windsor Hills,” District Attorney George Gascón said in a Friday statement. “Our office is in close contact with the lead law-enforcement agency investigating.

“A prosecutor has already been assigned and will be working with law enforcement throughout the weekend,” he said. “The case could be presented to us as early as Monday.”

If Gascón’s office decides to prosecute her, it would determine what charges she will face, a decision that is likely to be announced next week.

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Slauson and LA Brea are open in both directions, but with temporary stop signs and flashing red lights instead of the regular street lights managing the traffic. pic.twitter.com/sLvx8da6fH

— Eric Anthony Licas (@EricLicas) August 5, 2022

 

Staff writer Caitlin Antonios contributed to this report.

Six people — including three adults, an infant and an unborn child died — and eight other people were injured Thursday, Aug. 4, in a fiery multi-vehicle crash in the Windsor Hills area of Los Angeles.

Update: Woman arrested after Windsor Hills collision that killed 6, injured 8

Los Angeles County Fire Department units were called to the area of South La Brea Avenue and Slauson Avenue, an unincorporated area of Los Angeles, just before 1:40 p.m., near Ladera Park.

Initially reported as a fire, officials discovered as many as six vehicles had collided.

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Police officers remain on scene in the deadly aftermath of a multi vehicle crash at W Slauson Ave. & S La Brea Ave. that resulted in the deaths of 3 adults, an infant and an unborn child. The intersection is currently closed to cars and pedestrians. pic.twitter.com/enlLmAzfN4

— Clara Harter (@_ClaraHarter) August 5, 2022

A Mercedes-Benz was seen speeding southbound on South La Brea Avenue and reportedly ran a red light at the intersection, resulting in the fire, according to the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

The fire department and the California Highway Patrol reported three adults, one infant and one fetus died in the collision, and that there were multiple ejections due to the crash.

The CHP reported a sixth victim was later found dead in the burned wreckage of one vehicle, though further information was not immediately available.

At least eight other people were injured in the crash, although the extent of their injuries was not immediately known.

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Surveillance video obtained by RMG News shows the violent crash that left 5 dead in #WindsorHills, LaBrea & Slauson. @NBCLA @AlexNBCLA @LaurenmCoronado @RMGNews pic.twitter.com/oqniZ3E0Qp

— Rosa Valle-Lopez (@RosaNBCLA) August 4, 2022

Veronica Esquivel, 40, was about to pump gas at a nearby gas station when the crash took place, setting off panic and screams among those nearby. She said she could see the fire from the station.

“I just immediately thought explosion. I saw things flying in the air. So I kind of ducked,” Esquivel said.

Some suggested that the configuration of the busy intersection was inherently dangerous for drivers.

“You have three hills going downhill converging in one intersection, so it’s inherently dangerous,”  said Celsia Martin, 31, who lives around five minutes from the site of the accident. The intersection is almost always busy with three lanes of traffic in each direction, said Martin. “It’s just a lot to pay attention to, it’s a lot that could go wrong, and something definitely went wrong.”

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I’m talking to a few residents familiar with the area. pic.twitter.com/SrwbXUJycP

— Brennon Dixson (@TheBrennonD) August 5, 2022

About six hours after the accident, an eerie quiet hung over the normally bustling intersection. Access was closed to pedestrians in all four directions as police officers remained on site and car debris was gradually cleared.

The shell of a burnt Mercedes sat on a corner, as residents gathered at the edge of police tape soberly discussing the day’s events.

The cause of the collision was under investigation, and the intersection of South La Brea Avenue and Slauson Avenue was closed for an unknown duration.

This is a developing story, check back for more information.