One minute, Mustafa Balci was sitting in a lawn chair next to his wife at their booth on the Venice Beach boardwalk, enjoying the leisurely summer scene.
The next minute, the couple was lying on the ground along with the other injured after a man accelerated his large black car through a crowd, hitting one person after another as people tried desperately to get out of the way.
Saturday’s hit-and-run killed an Italian woman on her honeymoon and hurt 11 others who only a moment earlier had been enjoying a late afternoon near the beach at the height of vacation season.
Balci’s booth was struck within seconds of the rampage’s start. The car swerved left, sideswiping a picnic table holding the couple’s wares — the traditional Turkish blue glassware of the eye to ward off the evil eye, and wall hangings of Jesus and the Virgin Mary.
The car hit three customers looking at the items, and slammed into Balci’s knees. It pushed him backward, breaking a table, smashing a mirror and scattering everything. His wife, Yesim Balci, was flung 8 feet, tumbling backward and landing facedown.
By the time it was over, the driver had covered about a quarter of a mile along the boardwalk before speeding away. The entire incident was over in minutes.
“I couldn’t see her when I woke up, I looked up and was like where is she? I yelled, ‘Are you around? Are you alive?’ She yelled back, ‘I’m alive,’” Mustafa Balci said. “I thought both of us would be dead.”
Mustafa Balci, 44, was helped up by strangers who took him over to his wife. The couple were taken along with three others to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, treated for minor injuries and released.
Yesim Balci, 48, had her ankle taped up and had bruises all over her body. On Sunday, she couldn’t raise her left arm.
Authorities arrested a man on suspicion of murder several hours after the hit-and-run. Nathan Louis Campbell, 38, of Los Angeles walked into a police station in neighboring Santa Monica and said he was involved. He remained jailed Sunday on $1 million bail.
Police declined to discuss a motive, but Deputy Chief Kirk Albanese said there was no indication the attack was a terrorist act or that anyone else was involved.
The driver first parked outside a hotel and surveyed the boardwalk: Hundreds of people were sitting at cafes, walking along the seashore or shopping at vendors selling jewelry or art.
Then, according to surveillance video, the man got into a large black car, steered around a vehicle barrier and drove through the crowd.
The driver knocked over two mannequins and an ATM and started hitting people, swerving from side to side and often running straight into victims. Witnesses said the car was traveling at about 35 to 40 mph along the boardwalk.
The driver eventually turned up a side street and headed away from the ocean. The car was later found abandoned less than two miles away, police said.
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.”
The Italian woman was identified as Alice Gruppioni, 32. Her family in Bologna told the Italian news agency LaPresse that she had been on her honeymoon after a July 20 wedding.
Another person was critically injured. Two others were taken to hospitals in serious condition. Eight suffered less serious injuries, police said.
The Balcis estimated that 90 percent of their goods were broken, at a loss of $6,000 for handmade goods whose raw materials were shipped from Turkey. They don’t have any health insurance and aren’t sure how they will make up the losses.
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