The driver of a minivan that crashed outside a Los Angeles metro station, killing three women and critically injuring two more, was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence and three counts of murder, police said Wednesday.
Authorities haven’t released their names. It came to rest under a food vendor’s tent. The two injured women are in their 50s.
Police identified the driver as Ihor Demianenko, 61, who lives in the Valley Village neighborhood. Demianenko was booked early Wednesday and his bail was set at a little over $6 million, records show. The three women who died were between the ages of 40 and 60, according to the police news release.
He was treated for minor injuries at a hospital, police said. The white Toyota Sienna was traveling at an “unsafe speed” at around 6 p.m. when it veered to the right, ran off the road and collided with a light, Los Angeles police said in a news release Wednesday. Investigators will go through video of the crash frame by frame, Police Chief Jim McDonnell said.
The court upheld a prosecutor’s decision to file murder charges against a driver who was determined to be legally intoxicated at the time of a fatal crash and drove at high speeds, ran a red light and had a near miss right before.
“It will be probably a prolonged but a very deliberate investigation to determine what happened here,” he said. The California Supreme Court ruled in 1981 that drivers who kill someone with a vehicle can be charged with second-degree murder if they are found to have acted with “wantonness and a conscious disregard for life” that could support a finding of implied malice.
