
Prosecutors Expected to Announce Felony Charges in LA Car Crash Outside Nightclub That Injured 36
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman is expected to announce felony charges against the driver, who was identified Sunday as 29-year-old Fernando Ramirez. He is expected to face a felony charge of assault with a deadly weapon. A phone number for Ramirez could not be found in an online database search, and the public defender's office has not responded to requests for comment on whether one of its attorneys is representing him. Ramirez was later found to have been shot in the lower back, but authorities have not identified the suspected gunman.
Los Angeles police released surveillance photos Monday from cameras near the crash showing a man with a goatee wearing a blue Dodgers jacket and a light blue jersey with the number 5. Ramirez has a criminal history that includes a battery and gang-related charge in 2014, an aggravated battery conviction for a 2019 attack on a Black man at a Whole Foods grocery store in Laguna Beach, California, and a domestic violence charge in 2021, records show.
'Ramirez has proved to be violent to strangers and family alike and clearly has a lack of concern for the safety of others,' Orange County prosecutors said in a court filing for the 2019 attack. A 2024 drunken driving case and 2022 domestic violence charge were pending at the time of the nightclub crash, according to records.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Al Arabiya
27 minutes ago
- Al Arabiya
California utility creates fund for victims of january's deadly eaton fire near la
Southern California Edison announced this week that it will create a fund to compensate victims of January's devastating Eaton Fire near Los Angeles. Investigators haven't yet determined a cause for the blaze that killed 19 people and destroyed more than 9,400 homes and other structures in Altadena. The creation of the Wildfire Recovery Compensation Program seems to suggest that the utility is prepared to acknowledge what several lawsuits claim: that its equipment sparked the conflagration. 'Even though the details of how the Eaton Fire started are still being evaluated, SCE will offer an expedited process to pay and resolve claims fairly and promptly,' Pedro Pizarro, chief executive of Edison International, the utility's parent company, said in a statement Wednesday. 'This allows the community to focus more on recovery instead of lengthy, expensive litigation.' It is not clear how much money the utility will contribute to the fund. A lawsuit filed by Los Angeles County in March claims that costs and damage estimates were expected to total hundreds of millions of dollars, with assessments ongoing. SCE said the compensation program, which will go into effect this fall, would be open to those who lost homes, rental properties, or businesses. It would also cover those who suffered injuries, were harmed by smoke, or had family members who were killed. The LA Fire Justice, which advocates for wildfire victims, said in a statement that the program's creation shows that SCE is prepared to accept responsibility. But the nonprofit said a similar fund by Pacific Gas & Electric following wildfires in Northern California was slow to roll out and inefficient. 'Experience suggests that these direct payments for victims are neither quick nor easy nor equitable. PG&E offered a similar program, and wildfire victims ended up receiving inadequate compensation, and it didn't happen fast,' said Doug Boxer, an attorney for LA Fire Justice. The SCE payment plan is being created by administrators who helped form similar programs, including the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001. LA County previously won more than $64 million in a settlement with Southern California Edison over the 2018 Woolsey Fire. Investigators determined SCE's equipment sparked that blaze, and the utility also paid more than $2 billion to settle related insurance claims. Utility equipment has sparked some of the deadliest and most destructive fires in state history in recent years. Investigators are also working to determine the cause of the Palisades Fire, which broke out shortly before the Eaton Fire and killed 12 people and destroyed thousands of structures in Los Angeles.


Al Arabiya
3 hours ago
- Al Arabiya
UnitedHealth says it is under a federal investigation and cooperating
Shares of UnitedHealth Group dove early Thursday after the health care giant said it was under a Department of Justice investigation. The company said it has started complying with both criminal and civil requests from federal investigators and it was cooperating with them. UnitedHealth has a long record of responsible conduct and effective compliance, the company said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Earlier this year, The Wall Street Journal said federal officials had launched a civil fraud investigation into how the company records diagnoses that lead to extra payments for its Medicare Advantage, or MA, plans. Those are privately run versions of the government's Medicare coverage program mostly for people ages 65 and over. The company's UnitedHealthcare business covers more than 8 million people as the nation's largest provider of Medicare Advantage plans. The business has been under pressure in recent quarters due to rising care use and rate cuts. UnitedHealth Group Inc. said in February that it was'nt aware of the start of any new activity as the paper reported. The company said Thursday that it reached out to the Justice Department after reviewing media reports about investigations into certain aspects of the company's participation in the Medicare program. UnitedHealth runs one of the nation's largest health insurance and pharmacy benefits management businesses. It also operates a growing Optum business that provides care and technology support. Company shares have mostly shed value since December, when UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was fatally shot in midtown Manhattan on his way to the company's annual investor meeting. The stock price dropped 3 percent, or 9.63, to 283 shortly before markets opened Thursday.

Al Arabiya
10 hours ago
- Al Arabiya
Trump supporter charged with making threats against US lawmaker
US federal authorities have arrested a man accused of sending dozens of threatening and violent messages to public officials he viewed as hostile to President Donald Trump's agenda, charging him with threatening a member of Congress. Geoffrey Giglio, a Trump supporter who has previously been questioned by at least four federal law enforcement agencies over similar conduct, was charged this week with threatening a member of US Congress, transmitting interstate threats and making anonymous harassing communications, according to a federal complaint. The charges stem from violent and profane messages Giglio allegedly left for US Representative Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat and frequent Trump critic. According to the complaint, Giglio left a voicemail for Swalwell in March warning, 'If you want to keep fighting, then we will come get you.' He referenced a .308 caliber rifle, saying, 'I'll just set up behind my .308 and I'll do my job,' and ended the message with sexually explicit remarks about Swalwell's wife. In a follow-up call to Swalwell's office in mid-June, after already being questioned by the FBI, Giglio told a staff intern, 'Tell Eric Swalwell that we are coming and that we are going to handle everyone. We are going to hurt everyone,' according to the complaint. The complaint also details threats Giglio made to Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, and to an FBI agent investigating the matter. In a message to Benson, he said, 'We are coming for you,' using explicit language and threatening to 'put her in a hole.' Giglio acknowledged sending the message during a June 3 interview with the FBI, the complaint said. On June 26, the day before his arrest, Giglio sent several hostile messages to the FBI agent, writing, 'Now I'm coming for you.' the complaint said. Giglio was arrested in California but was not charged over the threats to Benson or the FBI agent, the complaint said. The US Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California, which is prosecuting the case, and the FBI declined to comment. A public defender listed in court records as representing Giglio did not respond to requests for comment. The offices of Swalwell and Benson also did not immediately respond. The White House condemned the threats against Swalwell. 'As a survivor of multiple assassination attempts, the president takes these matters extremely seriously,' said White House spokesperson Harrison Fields. 'Anyone engaging in such behavior will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.' The complaint cites a 2024 Reuters investigation that identified Giglio as a persistent source of threats against public officials, including judges, lawmakers and state election officials. Despite multiple investigations by federal agencies, including the FBI and the Secret Service, Giglio had not previously been charged, as his messages often stopped short of the legal threshold for prosecution under the First Amendment, according to the Reuters report. The arrest comes amid the most sustained wave of US political violence since the 1970s, including two assassination attempts against Trump last year and the murder in June of a former Democratic speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives and her husband.