The lawyer for the person who was driving an SUV that veered throughout a street and crashed into a big group of regulation enforcement recruits final week has mentioned it was a “tragic accident” that occurred when his shopper fell asleep on the wheel.
Nicholas Gutierrez, 22, of Diamond Bar was driving to work in his Honda CR-V early on Wednesday when the car plowed into a gaggle of 75 police trainees out on a morning coaching run within the Los Angeles suburb of Whittier.
His lawyer, Alexandra Kazarian, mentioned on Monday that the photo voltaic panel firm electrical engineer had woken up at 5am that day to move to work and had not been up late the night time earlier than.
“He is child that fell asleep on his option to work early within the morning,” she mentioned.
This runs contra to a story given by Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva final week in an interview with NewsNation.
The sheriff mentioned that preliminary investigations “developed possible trigger to imagine [the crash] was intentional”.
TheLos Angeles Occasions studies that it confirmed with Mr. Villanueva that there was possible trigger to arrest the driving force on suspicion of tried homicide as there was proof he had intentionally acted when he injured 25 of the recruits, 4 critically.
“I do not know why the sheriff mentioned that,” Ms Kazarian mentioned. “All indications within the preliminary investigation are that there isn’t a proof in any way that this was intentional.”
Mr Gutierez handed a breathalyzer check on the scene however authorities try to find out whether or not he had used every other managed substances.
Whereas marijuana was discovered within the car, Ms Kazarian mentioned when her shopper was taken to the hospital, all of the toxicology and sobriety assessments got here again destructive.
Mr Gutierrez was launched from custody on Thursday whereas investigators gathered extra proof.
He informed KNBC Channel 4 that he didn’t deliberately do it.
“I want it by no means occurred. I really feel dangerous that occurred,” he mentioned, including that he was dragged from the car after the incident.
“They tried to say that I did it deliberately, which I did not,” he mentioned. “I stored on telling them I did not. I requested if the whole lot was OK.”
Ms Kazarian claims her shopper was injured after the crash however didn’t give particulars.
4 recruits stay in essential situation and one, Alejandro Martinez, has suffered setbacks to his situation and is on a ventilator. He has mind swelling, compound femur fractures, collapsed lung, and harm to a number of organs, the Occasions studies.