2 Michigan Shootings Leave One Student Dead, 2 Hurt

(Newser) – One of two students shot in their apartment near the Michigan State University campus died this morning at an area hospital of multiple gunshot wounds, police said. The dead student was identified as 20-year-old Dominique Nolff, of Middleville in western Michigan. He was pronounced dead at 9:23 am, about 12 hours after he and his 20-year-old roommate were shot. His roommate, from Grand Haven—whose name wasn’t released—was treated and released from a hospital.

East Lansing police found the two students after responding last night to a report of a shooting at the Cedar Village apartment complex. “This does not appear to be a random act,” police said in a statement. Police described the suspect as a 20- to 25-year-old man who was wearing tan pants, a black coat, and black shoes or boots. The shootings near Michigan State occurred hours before a separate shooting near Ferris State University in Big Rapids, about 50 miles north of Grand Rapids. Early this morning, a male student was shot in an apartment complex just off Ferris State’s campus. His wounds were not considered life-threatening.

Newser

2 Michigan Shootings Leave One Student Dead, 2 Hurt

Will Bio Fibs Hurt Wendy Davis?

(Newser) – Wendy Davis finds herself at the center of a firestorm this week, after being forced to admit that she’d embellished or omitted some details of what’s generally been depicted as an inspiring personal biography. If you’ve missed the fracas, here are the CliffsNotes:

The Original Story:

• Davis has always said she was divorced at 19, and she raised two daughters in a mobile home, before eventually attending Texas Christian University and then Harvard.


• But on Sunday the Dallas Morning News reported that Davis actually divorced at 21, not 19, that she lived in the mobile home for only a few months before moving into an apartment, and that she’d soon thereafter gotten a lot of financial help from her second husband, Jeff Davis, who helped her pay for college, and took care of her kids while she attended Harvard. When they divorced, Jeff won custody of the kids, and Wendy was ordered to pay child support.


• “A lot of what she says is true,” Jeff Davis says. “The first 21 years were about working one, two, and three jobs, trying to get through, raising a kid. … She got a break. Good things happen.”

Davis’ Response:

• “My language should be tighter,” Davis acknowledged in an interview with the paper. “I’m learning about using broader, looser language. I need to be more focused on the detail.”


• When likely gubernatorial opponent Greg Abbott released a statement saying she “systematically, intentionally, and repeatedly deceived Texans,” Davis responded by saying the attacks wouldn’t work “because my story is the story of millions of Texas women who know the strength it takes when you’re young, alone, and a mother.”

The Reaction:

• “If anything, the fact that we are only just learning the ‘fuller version’ of Davis’ biography says less about her than it does about the media that have lavished her with adoring coverage,” writes Andrew Stiles at the National Review, noting how slow some outlets were to report on the story. But these “fabrications” aren’t “the sort of egregious falsehoods that have ended political careers.”


• Besides, a host of politicians, from Marco Rubio to Elizabeth Warren, to President Obama himself have run into similar biographical embarrassments, points out Nia-Malika Henderson at the Washington Post. “The bottom line is this: People who liked Wendy Davis before the more complicated story of her background emerged will like her all the same. And those that didn’t will have another reason to root against her.”

Newser

Will Bio Fibs Hurt Wendy Davis?

Howard Dean: Individual Mandate Not Necessary, Will Hurt Democrats

JOE KERNEN: Howard, you’re also expressing concern about — I guess we know that young people, young healthy people, you’re probably not getting enough of them at this point, right?

HOWARD DEAN: It doesn’t really matter that much. Honestly, the actuarial data — this is about the individual mandate. I happen to agree with Joe, the individual mandate was not necessary and it’s probably a big political thing. And that is going to hurt the Democrats because people don’t like to be told what to do by the government no matter what party they’re in. But the truth is, that wasn’t necessary, and the insurance companies like it because it does bring young, healthy people who aren’t likely to get sick into the system. But in our experience, here, although it’s with young people under 18, not with everybody is that the individual mandate is really not that necessary. And the actual data is — does not lead to the conclusion that you’re going to have huge cost overruns for the insurance companies.

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Howard Dean: Individual Mandate Not Necessary, Will Hurt Democrats

87 Hurt When High-Speed Ferry Hits Mystery Object

(AP) – A high-speed ferry heading from Hong Kong to Macau hit an unidentified object off an outlying island in the predawn today, leaving 87 people injured, authorities and the ferry company said. The hydrofoil, carrying 107 passengers and 10 crew, struck the object at 1:15am near Hei Ling Chau, a small island in waters on the western side of Hong Kong.

The ferry was towed back to the ferry pier in central Hong Kong and the injured taken to hospital. The Hospital Authority said in a statement that 58 people were discharged while two remained in serious condition and 27 others were stable. The Marine Department said it was investigating the accident.

Newser

87 Hurt When High-Speed Ferry Hits Mystery Object

VIDEO: Ryan Lochte Tears MCL And Sprains ACL

We all have our celeb crushes right? That’s normal, but what’s not normal is tackling your crush and causing them to suffer a serious injury! That’s what happened to Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte when a female fan attempted to hug Ryan and the two toppled over causing him to fall to his knee. Lochte’s rep released a statement saying, “As a result of a freak injury caused by an unexpected fan encounter, Ryan has suffered a torn MCL and an ACL sprain and will be taking a break from training and competition.” Yikes! We hope Ryan makes a quick recovery!

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VIDEO: Ryan Lochte Tears MCL And Sprains ACL

Newt: Shutdown fight won’t hurt the GOP in 2014

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich explained on CNN’s State of the Union Sunday that the Republicans wouldn’t not suffer any long-term harm from their fight over Obamacare and the government shutdown.

NEWT GINGRICH:  This is childish, it’s silly. You are about to have [Gov.] Chris Christie (R-N.J.) win an election in New Jersey by 20%. It is 390 days until the next election and to suggest — you go back and look at Thacher in 1983, look at Reagan in ’82 and ’83 — this is in the middle of a bloody fight. This is a serious fight. Nobody wants to grant the House Republicans any dignity. The fact that they’re fighting over very profound principles and when it’s over and when the dust settles, the country’s going to assess and then they’re going to say that Obamacare is a disaster.

…

GINGRICH:  But notice what’s going on. [Speaker] Boehner goes down and says I’ll give you six weeks of a clean debt ceiling. The President says, no. [Sen.] Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is now trying to redouble the bet and saying not only will I not accept it from debt ceiling, I want you to actually roll back the sequester. Now at some point you have to understand this is a profound fight over the size of federal government, the size of the federal deficit and whether or not Washington is going to run the whole country incompetently as it has with the health.gov. In a country that has Amazon and Google, they can’t figure out how to put up a site can you go to? This is a sign of how fundamentally incompetent the bureaucracy is.

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9 dead, 6 hurt in Mexico shootings

Medical personnel remove the body of a victim killed in drug violence in Monterrey, Mexico. (File photo)

Nine people have been killed and six others injured in a series of gang-related shootings in three Mexican cities over the weekend, officials say.

In the early hours of Sunday, gunmen killed two men and wounded two others among a group standing outside a bar in the northern industrial area of Monterrey, police said.

The incident came three days after attackers killed four people and wounded two others at a bar in a nearby suburb of Monterrey. Authorities said both events were similar in that the assailants arrived in taxis.

In a separate incident on Saturday night, a group of armed men on motorcycles killed three young men and a 22-year-old woman and injured four others after opening fire at a bar in the resort city of Cuernavaca, the Morelos State prosecutor’s office said.

In a final incident on Saturday afternoon, gunmen opened fire outside a convenience store and killed three people in the northern city of Fresnillo. Federal and local police launched a wide search for the escaped criminals in the city known as a main drug trafficking route.

This is while, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto said there was a significant drop in drug-related killings, particularly in Monterrey and Torreon, during his first state-of-the-nation address earlier this month.

Since 2010, the Zetas and the Gulf cartels have been involved in ongoing drug-related battles in the Mexican cities of Monterrey and Fresnillo. The Beltran Leyva cartel has also posed major problems for vacationers and US retirees who frequent the city of Cuernavaca.

Official figures show that since Nieto took office, about 1,000 people have died each month in drug-related violence and the army is still fighting cartels across large parts of the country.

Nearly 80,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence in Mexico since former President Felipe Calderon launched an offensive against Mexico’s drug cartels in December 2006.

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9 dead, 6 hurt in Mexico shootings

More than 30 hurt as Greyhound bus overturns in Ohio

Sat Sep 14, 2013 12:53pm EDT

(Reuters) – A Greyhound bus flipped over and landed on its side in an Ohio cornfield early on Saturday, injuring more than 30 people, some seriously, authorities said.

The bus was traveling on Interstate 75, when the crash occurred at 3:48 a.m. in Liberty Township, about 25 miles north of Cincinnati, said Jeff Galloway, director of the Butler County, Ohio Emergency Management Agency.

There were 51 passengers plus the driver on board the bus, which was en route from Cincinnati to Detroit, Michigan.

Of the injured, 28 were put into ambulances and six airlifted to hospitals, Galloway said.

“The injuries range from serious to minor,” he said.

The Ohio State Highway Patrol was investigating the cause of the incident.

Galloway said there were no signs that the bus was speeding.

“No indication of anything,” he said. “That’s all under investigation.”

(Reporting by Noreen O’Donnell; Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst and Gunna Dickson)

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More than 30 hurt as Greyhound bus overturns in Ohio

Analysis: Surprise or not, U.S. strikes can still hurt Assad

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – It would hardly be a surprise to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad or his military if American missiles start hitting Syria soon.

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Analysis: Surprise or not, U.S. strikes can still hurt Assad

Hundreds flee, homes burn, 3 hurt in Calif. fire

Dave Clark, of Twin Pines, tells a neighbor their house is ok as his own house burns on Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2013. Residents and sheriff’s deputies were left without an escape route and stuck inside an evacuation area Wednesday night as a huge and growing Southern California wildfire left three people injured and burned homes. Fire officials said about a dozen structures were damaged or destroyed, but could not say how many were homes. (AP Photo/Desert Sun, Richard Lui) (Richard Lui The Desert Sun)

Dave Clark, of Twin Pines, tells a neighbor their house is ok as his own house burns on Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2013. Residents and sheriff’s deputies were left without an escape route and stuck inside an evacuation area Wednesday night as a huge and growing Southern California wildfire left three people injured and burned homes. Fire officials said about a dozen structures were damaged or destroyed, but could not say how many were homes. (AP Photo/Desert Sun, Richard Lui) (Richard Lui The Desert Sun)

The wildfire burns along State Route 243 as a truck carrying a Cal Fire bulldozer moves up the road on Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2013. Residents and sheriff’s deputies were left without an escape route and stuck inside an evacuation area Wednesday night as a huge and growing Southern California wildfire left three people injured and burned homes. The fire broke out about 2 p.m. and grew with extreme speed, surging to at least 5,000 acres, or nearly 8 square miles, within a few hours, state fire officials said. (AP Photo/The Desert Sun, Richard Lui) (Richard Lui The Desert Sun)

A pickup truck is engulfed in flames as the Silver Fire roars through a residential area near Hwy 243 and Twin Pines Road between Banning and Idyllwild, Calif. on Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2013. (AP Photo/The Press-Enterprise, Frank Bellino)

Multiple structures burn in the Poppet Flats area as the Silver Fire roared through the area along Hwy 243 between Banning and Idyllwild, Calif. on Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2013. (AP Photo/The Press-Enterprise, Frank Bellino) NO SALES; MAGS OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT

Twin Pines, Calif. resident Dave Clark tells some neighbors their home is ok while his own house burns behind him, Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2013 near Banning, Calif. A new wildfire has broken out in Riverside County near Banning, sending up a massive plume of smoke and surging toward three communities where people have been told to evacuate. (AP Photo/The Desert Sun, Richard Lui)

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BANNING, Calif. (AP) — A wildfire that broke out in the inland mountains of Southern California has expanded exponentially, burning homes, forcing the evacuation of several small mountain communities and leaving three people injured.

About 1,500 people had evacuated as the wildfire of more than 9 square miles raged out of control in the San Jacinto Mountains near Banning, said Lucas Spelman, spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Three were injured, including two firefighters taken to hospitals by ambulance and a burned civilian who was airlifted out, state fire officials said. They would give no further details on the injuries.

Fire officials said about a dozen structures were damaged or destroyed, but could not say how many were homes. Footage from TV news helicopters and photos from the scene showed several houses in flames.

They include the Twin Pines home of Dave Clark, whose parents were killed in a house fire in Riverside in April 2012 the Riverside Press-Enterprise reported. Prosecutors alleged Clark’s sister Deborah Clark set the fire, and she was awaiting a mental-competency hearing to see if she was competent to stand trial for her parents’ murder in a case that has received extensive local media coverage.

A photograph taken by the Desert Sun newspaper showed Clark talking on his cellphone with the home fully engulfed in flames behind him.

“He said he lost everything, he couldn’t talk,” brother Jeff Clark told the Press-Enterprise.

About 800 people evacuated the Silent Valley Club, a private RV resort, state fire spokesman Lucas Spelman said.

About 700 more were under evacuation order in the rural communities of Poppet Flats, Twin Pines, Edna Valley and Vista Grande, and evacuation centers were set up at high schools in Hemet and Banning. The communities are in the San Jacinto Mountains along Interstate 10 some 80 miles east of Los Angeles.

Margaret Runnels of Poppet Flats was at work when her house came under an evacuation order. She was in Banning waiting for her husband to collect pets and valuables from their house.

“I was hoping they would let me back up to get some personal items I knew my husband would forget like a jewelry box and stuff that means stuff,” a crying Runnels told the Desert Sun. “You always tell yourself to prepare everything but you never take the stupid time to do it.”

More than 500 firefighters, helped by five helicopters and five air tankers, were working to protect homes and get ahead of the flames. All but three helicopters were grounded after night fall but were set to return to the air Thursday morning.

Associated Press

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Hundreds flee, homes burn, 3 hurt in Calif. fire

Gold price crash will not hurt our plans, says Highland Gold

24 karat gold bars are seen at the United States West Point Mint facility in West Point, New York June 5, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Shannon Stapleton

By Jemima Kelly

LONDON | Wed Aug 7, 2013 4:38am EDT

LONDON (Reuters) – Highland Gold (HGM.L), a Russian gold producer partly owned by oligarch Roman Abramovich, will not be swayed from plans to develop its new deposits by this year’s crash in prices for the precious metal.

Eugene Shvidler, chairman of Highland Gold, said the company would buck the trend of other gold producers to rein in spending and put projects on hold because it had felt “no big impact so far” from the fall in gold prices by about a quarter this year.

But he expressed some frustration with smaller Russian gold companies reluctant to “marry” into partnerships after Highland tried and failed to forge deals over the last five years, warning them that this would hurt the industry.

“On the one hand (the price fall) is very scary, but on the other, it’s very healthy,” Shvidler said by telephone from his 200-hectare (500-acre) Château Thénac vineyard in southwestern France.

“There has been no big impact so far. If it stays the way it is, we’re OK. We don’t have to stop any big projects or anything like that.”

The gold price started the year at just under $ 1,680 an ounce and was trading at around $ 1,280 early on Wednesday. Highland’s 2012 all-in cash costs stood at $ 973 an ounce, the company said.

Shvidler, head of Abramovich’s investment vehicle Millhouse LLC which owns a 32-percent stake in Highland, shrugged off comments by rival gold company, Russia’s Polymetal (POLYP.L).

Its chief executive, Vitaly Nesis, said last month the industry’s response to the crash was “wholly inadequate” and spending cuts were “startlingly” slow.

“He is very talkative,” said Shvidler, who is so close to Abramovich that the owner of Chelsea football club bought him 45 Highland sheep for his 45th birthday.

He said he was not ruling out new acquisitions.

On April 2, two weeks before the gold price began to plummet, Highland said it had paid $ 212 million to acquire CJSC Bazovye Metally, which allows the company to mine the Kekura gold deposit in the remote Chukotka peninsula. Abramovich was the governor of the region between 2001 and 2008.

Shvidler says that Highland would not have saved much if the deal had gone through later. But Nikolay Sosnovskiy, an analyst at VTB Capital, said the transaction looked “very overpriced”.

“It was well above the industry average, while the reality should be that for such an extreme region there should be a discount, not a premium,” Sosnovskiy said.

MARRIAGE OF CONVENIENCE

Shvidler recently increased his stake in the company from around 8 to over 12 percent, but said he was “not fanatical” about producing gold and would “absolutely” sell the company if offered the right price.

“We are in business, we are not in love,” he said.

There is not much love lost between some of the smaller Russian gold companies.

“For some of these people to get married in partnerships would be a total disaster,” said Shvidler, no stranger to takeovers.

He oversaw the biggest deal in Russia when, in 2005, Gazprom took over oil company Sibneft for $ 13.1 billion – a company which Abramovich privatized in the 1990s and Shvidler made into Russia’s fastest growing oil producer.

Shvidler said Highland had been trying, unsuccessfully, to forge deals with other small Russian gold producers for the last five years but that it was difficult to do business with them.

“These are local guys with local ideas,” he said. “Even this deal with Kekura took us a year, and those were not local guys.”

The gold crash has seen most big gold-mining companies announce billions of dollars of writedowns in recent months. Last week Polymetal said it would write down the value of its assets by up to $ 340 million.

Highland has not announced any writedowns so far.

Highland was originally put on the market by the Fleming family, who gave it the name of the area in northern Scotland from where they originate.

Is Shvidler expecting more Highland sheep for his 50th birthday?

“No,” he laughed. “I don’t want to turn 50, that’s all.”

(Reporting By Jemima Kelly; editing by Elizabeth Piper)

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Gold price crash will not hurt our plans, says Highland Gold

1 dead, 11 hurt as car turns LA seaside into chaos

In this image take from a security camera, pedestrians scatter as a car drives through a packed afternoon crowd along the Venice Beach boardwalk in Los Angeles, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2013. At least a dozen people were injured, two of them critically, according to police. (AP Photo/Snapchat)

In this image take from a security camera, pedestrians scatter as a car drives through a packed afternoon crowd along the Venice Beach boardwalk in Los Angeles, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2013. At least a dozen people were injured, two of them critically, according to police. (AP Photo/Snapchat)

In this image take from a security camera, pedestrians scatter as a car drives through a packed afternoon crowd along the Venice Beach boardwalk in Los Angeles, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2013. At least a dozen people were injured, two of them critically, according to police. (AP Photo/Snapchat)

Pedestrians gather as police and fire officials respond after a car drove through a packed afternoon crowd along the Venice Beach boardwalk in Los Angeles, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2013. At least a dozen people were injured, two of them critically, according to police. (AP Photo/Maarten Smitskamp)

An unidentified man looks at a car that came to rest against the entrance of a public restroom after being driven through a packed afternoon crowd along the Venice Beach boardwalk in Los Angeles, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2013. At least a dozen people were injured, two of them critically, according to police. (AP Photo/Maarten Smitskamp)

Police and fire officials assist an injured pedestrian at the scene where a car drove through a packed afternoon crowd along the Venice Beach boardwalk in Los Angeles, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2013. At least a dozen people were injured, two of them critically, according to police. (AP Photo/Venice311.org, Alex Thompson)

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — A rapidly accelerating car driven by a young man screeched across a sidewalk and straight into a crowd enjoying one of Southern California’s most popular boardwalks, killing one person, injuring 11 and leaving the promenade in chaos as he sped out of sight.

The victim died at a hospital a few hours after the Saturday evening crash at the Venice Beach boardwalk, Los Angeles police Lt. Andy Neiman said.

Security video shows the man parking his black car alongside the seaside boardwalk as the sun sank, surveying the idyllic scene for several minutes before getting back into the car and speeding into the crowd. It shows hundreds of people walking lazily or sitting at cafes before the black car suddenly appears and sends them scrambling wildly.

Witnesses reported a horrifying aftermath.

“There was people kind of stumbling around, blood dripping down their legs looking confused not knowing what had happened, people screaming,” said 35-year-old Louisa Hodge, who was out enjoying the day on the Venice Beach boardwalk with a friend visiting from San Diego. “It was blocks and blocks of people just strewn across the sidewalk.”

Firefighters combed the chaotic crowd, finding 12 people wounded and taking 10 of them to the hospital where one later died, fire and police officials said.

Another victim was in critical condition, two more were in serious condition, and the remaining eight had minor injuries, city fire spokesman Brian Humphrey said.

The driver fled the scene and about an hour later, just as police were circulating word that they were seeking a black Dodge with a driver in his 20s, a man walked into a police station in neighboring Santa Monica, told officers he was involved in the boardwalk incident, Neiman said.

Police then found a car nearby that they believe belonged to the man, Neiman said.

Hours later detectives were questioning the man, calling him a person of interest and attempting to determine whether he was the driver, Neiman said.

Neiman would give no details on the identity of the person who died or the person of interest.

The site isn’t from the Santa Monica Farmer’s Market where a 2003 crash left 10 dead and 63 hurt, after an 87-year-old man’s car accidentally roared through the market.

According to the security video and witness accounts, the man with a baseball cap, gray shirt and white pants parked next to the Cadillac Hotel, twice walking out to the boardwalk before getting into the Dodge Avenger and accelerating, swerving around yellow poles meant to prevent cars from getting into the pedestrian-only area and onto the boardwalk.

“I heard a big ‘boom, boom,’ like the sound of someone going up and down the curb, it was super loud,” said Alex Hagan, 22, who was working the desk at the Cadillac Hotel and watched the scene unfold from the start.

The man knocked over two mannequins then started hitting people, swerving from side to side and often running straight into them.

The crowd of hundreds of couples, families and children who had been sitting at cafes, shopping and walking lazily along in shorts and sandals were sent on a mad scramble to get themselves and others out of the way and to rush to help those who were hit.

The car hit at least three vendors who were sitting at their sales booths, video showed.

It hit two women who appeared to be in their 60s, Hagan said.

Many ran after the car, screaming and cursing as it sped away, he said.

Hodge said she and her friend, 31-year-old Ashley Taylor, had made note of the numbers walking along the seaside.

“It was a really nice day, there were tons of people out, in fact, we were talking about how packed it was, because we were having a hard time getting through all the people,” said Hodge.

She and her friend stepped into a store to buy a couple of hats, a move that may have saved their lives, and stepped out to see the aftermath, as emergency crews arrived and started putting victims on tarps.

Hodge saw one man and woman lying next to each other, wearing head braces and barely able to move.

“They were just laying next to each other and grasping hands,” Hodge said, “just a man and a woman holding hands.”

Hours later police were surveying the same stretch of ground for evidence.

The Venice boardwalk is a cultural hub in a part of Los Angeles known for its circus-meets-gritty-city eccentricities.

The 1.5-mile ribbon of asphalt that runs along the sand a few hundred yards from the ocean is home to galleries, restaurants, tattoo shops, skateboard parks and the famous outdoor weight room known as Muscle Beach.

It can draw as many as 150,000 people on summer weekends.

Associated Press

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Top Headlines

1 dead, 11 hurt as car turns LA seaside into chaos

1 dead, 11 hurt as car turns LA seaside into chaos

In this image take from a security camera, pedestrians scatter as a car drives through a packed afternoon crowd along the Venice Beach boardwalk in Los Angeles, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2013. At least a dozen people were injured, two of them critically, according to police. (AP Photo/Snapchat)

In this image take from a security camera, pedestrians scatter as a car drives through a packed afternoon crowd along the Venice Beach boardwalk in Los Angeles, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2013. At least a dozen people were injured, two of them critically, according to police. (AP Photo/Snapchat)

In this image take from a security camera, pedestrians scatter as a car drives through a packed afternoon crowd along the Venice Beach boardwalk in Los Angeles, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2013. At least a dozen people were injured, two of them critically, according to police. (AP Photo/Snapchat)

Pedestrians gather as police and fire officials respond after a car drove through a packed afternoon crowd along the Venice Beach boardwalk in Los Angeles, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2013. At least a dozen people were injured, two of them critically, according to police. (AP Photo/Maarten Smitskamp)

An unidentified man looks at a car that came to rest against the entrance of a public restroom after being driven through a packed afternoon crowd along the Venice Beach boardwalk in Los Angeles, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2013. At least a dozen people were injured, two of them critically, according to police. (AP Photo/Maarten Smitskamp)

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — A rapidly accelerating car driven by a young man screeched across a sidewalk and straight into a crowd enjoying one of Southern California’s most popular boardwalks, killing one person, injuring 11 and leaving the promenade in chaos as he sped out of sight.

The victim died at a hospital a few hours after the Saturday evening crash at the Venice Beach boardwalk, Los Angeles police Lt. Andy Neiman said.

Security video shows the man parking his black car alongside the seaside boardwalk as the sun sank, surveying the idyllic scene for several minutes before getting back into the car and speeding into the crowd. It shows hundreds of people walking lazily or sitting at cafes before the black car suddenly appears and sends them scrambling wildly.

Witnesses reported a horrifying aftermath.

“There was people kind of stumbling around, blood dripping down their legs looking confused not knowing what had happened, people screaming,” said 35-year-old Louisa Hodge, who was out enjoying the day on the Venice Beach boardwalk with a friend visiting from San Diego. “It was blocks and blocks of people just strewn across the sidewalk.”

Firefighters combed the chaotic crowd, finding 12 people wounded and taking 10 of them to the hospital where one later died, fire and police officials said.

Another victim was in critical condition, two more were in serious condition, and the remaining eight had minor injuries, city fire spokesman Brian Humphrey said.

The driver fled the scene and about an hour later, just as police were circulating word that they were seeking a black Dodge with a driver in his 20s, a man walked into a police station in neighboring Santa Monica, told officers he was involved in the boardwalk incident, Neiman said.

Police then found a car nearby that they believe belonged to the man, Neiman said.

Hours later detectives were questioning the man, calling him a person of interest and attempting to determine whether he was the driver, Neiman said.

Neiman would give no details on the identity of the person who died or the person of interest.

According to the security video and witness accounts, the man with a baseball cap, gray shirt and white pants parked next to the Cadillac Hotel, twice walking out to the boardwalk before getting into the Dodge Avenger and accelerating, swerving around yellow poles meant to prevent cars from getting into the pedestrian-only area and onto the boardwalk.

“I heard a big ‘boom, boom,’ like the sound of someone going up and down the curb, it was super loud,” said Alex Hagan, 22, who was working the desk at the Cadillac Hotel and watched the scene unfold from the start.

The man knocked over two mannequins then started hitting people, swerving from side to side and often running straight into them.

The crowd of hundreds of couples, families and children who had been sitting at cafes, shopping and walking lazily along in shorts and sandals were sent on a mad scramble to get themselves and others out of the way and to rush to help those who were hit.

The car hit at least three vendors who were sitting at their sales booths, video showed.

It hit two women who appeared to be in their 60s, Hagan said.

Many ran after the car, screaming and cursing as it sped away, he said.

Hodge said she and her friend, 31-year-old Ashley Taylor, had made note of the numbers walking along the seaside.

“It was a really nice day, there were tons of people out, in fact, we were talking about how packed it was, because we were having a hard time getting through all the people,” said Hodge.

She and her friend stepped into a store to buy a couple of hats, a move that may have saved their lives, and stepped out to see the aftermath, as emergency crews arrived and started putting victims on tarps.

Hodge saw one man and woman lying next to each other, wearing head braces and barely able to move.

“They were just laying next to each other and grasping hands,” Hodge said, “just a man and a woman holding hands.”

Hours later police were surveying the same stretch of ground for evidence.

The Venice boardwalk is a cultural hub in a part of Los Angeles known for its circus-meets-gritty-city eccentricities.

The 1.5-mile ribbon of asphalt that runs along the sand a few hundred yards from the ocean is home to galleries, restaurants, tattoo shops, skateboard parks and the famous outdoor weight room known as Muscle Beach.

It can draw as many as 150,000 people on summer weekends.

Associated Press

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Top Headlines

1 dead, 11 hurt as car turns LA seaside into chaos

1 dead, 11 hurt as car turns LA seaside into chaos

In this image take from a security camera, pedestrians scatter as a car drives through a packed afternoon crowd along the Venice Beach boardwalk in Los Angeles, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2013. At least a dozen people were injured, two of them critically, according to police. (AP Photo/Snapchat)

In this image take from a security camera, pedestrians scatter as a car drives through a packed afternoon crowd along the Venice Beach boardwalk in Los Angeles, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2013. At least a dozen people were injured, two of them critically, according to police. (AP Photo/Snapchat)

In this image take from a security camera, pedestrians scatter as a car drives through a packed afternoon crowd along the Venice Beach boardwalk in Los Angeles, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2013. At least a dozen people were injured, two of them critically, according to police. (AP Photo/Snapchat)

Pedestrians gather as police and fire officials respond after a car drove through a packed afternoon crowd along the Venice Beach boardwalk in Los Angeles, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2013. At least a dozen people were injured, two of them critically, according to police. (AP Photo/Maarten Smitskamp)

An unidentified man looks at a car that came to rest against the entrance of a public restroom after being driven through a packed afternoon crowd along the Venice Beach boardwalk in Los Angeles, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2013. At least a dozen people were injured, two of them critically, according to police. (AP Photo/Maarten Smitskamp)

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — A rapidly accelerating car driven by a young man screeched across a sidewalk and straight into a crowd enjoying one of Southern California’s most popular boardwalks, killing one person, injuring 11 and leaving the promenade in chaos as he sped out of sight.

The victim died at a hospital a few hours after the Saturday evening crash at the Venice Beach boardwalk, Los Angeles police Lt. Andy Neiman said.

Security video shows the man parking his black car alongside the seaside boardwalk as the sun sank, surveying the idyllic scene for several minutes before getting back into the car and speeding into the crowd. It shows hundreds of people walking lazily or sitting at cafes before the black car suddenly appears and sends them scrambling wildly.

Witnesses reported a horrifying aftermath.

“There was people kind of stumbling around, blood dripping down their legs looking confused not knowing what had happened, people screaming,” said 35-year-old Louisa Hodge, who was out enjoying the day on the Venice Beach boardwalk with a friend visiting from San Diego. “It was blocks and blocks of people just strewn across the sidewalk.”

Firefighters combed the chaotic crowd, finding 12 people wounded and taking 10 of them to the hospital where one later died, fire and police officials said.

Another victim was in critical condition, two more were in serious condition, and the remaining eight had minor injuries, city fire spokesman Brian Humphrey said.

The driver fled the scene and about an hour later, just as police were circulating word that they were seeking a black Dodge with a driver in his 20s, a man walked into a police station in neighboring Santa Monica, told officers he was involved in the boardwalk incident, Neiman said.

Police then found a car nearby that they believe belonged to the man, Neiman said.

Hours later detectives were questioning the man, calling him a person of interest and attempting to determine whether he was the driver, Neiman said.

Neiman would give no details on the identity of the person who died or the person of interest.

According to the security video and witness accounts, the man with a baseball cap, gray shirt and white pants parked next to the Cadillac Hotel, twice walking out to the boardwalk before getting into the Dodge Avenger and accelerating, swerving around yellow poles meant to prevent cars from getting into the pedestrian-only area and onto the boardwalk.

“I heard a big ‘boom, boom,’ like the sound of someone going up and down the curb, it was super loud,” said Alex Hagan, 22, who was working the desk at the Cadillac Hotel and watched the scene unfold from the start.

The man knocked over two mannequins then started hitting people, swerving from side to side and often running straight into them.

The crowd of hundreds of couples, families and children who had been sitting at cafes, shopping and walking lazily along in shorts and sandals were sent on a mad scramble to get themselves and others out of the way and to rush to help those who were hit.

The car hit at least three vendors who were sitting at their sales booths, video showed.

It hit two women who appeared to be in their 60s, Hagan said.

Many ran after the car, screaming and cursing as it sped away, he said.

Hodge said she and her friend, 31-year-old Ashley Taylor, had made note of the numbers walking along the seaside.

“It was a really nice day, there were tons of people out, in fact, we were talking about how packed it was, because we were having a hard time getting through all the people,” said Hodge.

She and her friend stepped into a store to buy a couple of hats, a move that may have saved their lives, and stepped out to see the aftermath, as emergency crews arrived and started putting victims on tarps.

Hodge saw one man and woman lying next to each other, wearing head braces and barely able to move.

“They were just laying next to each other and grasping hands,” Hodge said, “just a man and a woman holding hands.”

Hours later police were surveying the same stretch of ground for evidence.

The Venice boardwalk is a cultural hub in a part of Los Angeles known for its circus-meets-gritty-city eccentricities.

The 1.5-mile ribbon of asphalt that runs along the sand a few hundred yards from the ocean is home to galleries, restaurants, tattoo shops, skateboard parks and the famous outdoor weight room known as Muscle Beach.

It can draw as many as 150,000 people on summer weekends.

Associated Press

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1 dead, 11 hurt as car turns LA seaside into chaos