Los Angeles hit-and-run driver injured leg after mowing down mom and baby, police reveal
The juvenile suspect will serve 5 to 7 months in a probation camp after pleading guilty to 3 felony charges in the Venice incident
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The teen hit-and-run driver who slammed into a Los Angeles mom and her 8-month-old last summer asked to be taken to the hospital after attempting to flee the scene and slamming head-on into a pickup truck, according to authorities.
The Los Angeles Police Department, in response to a public records request, revealed that the suspect, whose name is being withheld because he is a juvenile, hurt his leg in the crash. The department did not provide specifics about his injury or those of the victims.
A 911 caller described the impact to police and told the dispatcher that the suspect had attempted to flee before being detained by a crowd at the scene.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}After striking Rachel and her 8-month-old, the wrong-way driver collided with a pickup truck. (Los Angeles County)
Shocking surveillance video shows the teen driver, who was in a stolen vehicle, speeding the wrong way down a one-way backstreet, plowing into a mother walking her infant son in a stroller. Police said they found drugs in the driver’s system and marijuana in the car, according to an incident report obtained by Fox News. He didn’t have a driver’s license and was already on probation for a prior offense.
The driver appears to attempted to flee before a good Samaritan in a pickup truck blocked his path and slammed the car off the road, video shows.
Other bystanders helped detain the teen until police arrived, the records show. They state that no description of injuries to the mother or her infant son was given in the call.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The victim, who has asked to be identified only with her first name, Rachel, has accused the driver of hitting her intentionally.
"I was cut up and bleeding from my elbows, hands and wrists," she told Fox News Digital Monday. "I lost a large chunk of skin from my shoulder, [and] I have three discs in my back out of place from being hit."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}She also provided a photo showing a large bruise on the back of a child’s head in what looks like a hospital room. She described it as a "tire mark" left on her son’s scalp in the hit-and-run.
The driver, who is now 17, pleaded guilty to three felony charges, two for assault and one for attempting to flee, and received a sentence of just five to seven months in a juvenile probation camp – a diversionary program for young offenders described as less severe than military school. Current and former prosecutors have said the suspect could have faced additional charges and stiffer penalties given the evidence.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Surveillance video recorded the entire Aug. 6, 2021 hit-and-run incident in Venice, California. (Los Angeles)
"After reviewing the evidence, our office charged the minor with the most serious offenses possible under the law: two counts of felony assault & one count of felony leaving the scene of an accident that caused injury without exchanging information," Democratic Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon said last week.
But while he accused the suspect of "driving under the influence" on Twitter, his office did not pursue such a charge. Instead, he pushed back against criticism of his progressive reform policies, which led to the driver’s light sentencing, as "misinformation."
"There is misinformation circulating about an incident that occurred last summer in which a minor, driving under the influence, struck a woman and her child with a car in Venice," he wrote in a Twitter thread regarding the incident. "It is important that the public knows the facts."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Democratic Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon claimed last week that there is "misinformation circulating" regarding the light punishment of a teen who admitted to mowing down a mother and her infant. Inset: Surveillance video captured the crash. (Robyn Beck/AFP | Los Angeles County)
Opponents are collecting signatures for a recall effort that would oust him from office if successful.
A similar campaign in San Francisco dethroned the fellow left-wing District Attorney Chesa Boudin earlier this month.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Rachel has described the hit-and-run as an attempted murder, far more serious than Gascon’s office makes it out to be. She told Fox News’ Tucker Carlson last week that she had originally voted for the embattled district attorney but now supports the recall movement.
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"I voted for this guy because I believed that our prisons do need some reform, but rewarding criminals, violent criminals for their actions, is very far from any kind of reformation that anybody would think is appropriate," she said on "Tucker Carlson Tonight" Tuesday.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Fox News’ Bill Melugin and Yael Halon contributed to this report.