Nathan Luis Campbell is the main suspect for recklessly driving his black Dodge Avenger through a crowded Venice Beach boardwalk on Saturday, killing an Italian newlywed and injuring 16 people, CBS News reported. The 38-year-old Campbell turned himself into the police station several hours after the deadly episode.
"I think we can safely say, when he turned himself in... he implicated himself in the Venice incident," Commander Andrew Smith said.
Investigators have yet given any sort of explanation as to why Campbell plowed into tourists and vendors on Saturday. Alice Gruppioni, a 32-year-old newlywed from Italy was killed as she stood right her new husband, Christian Casedei was beside her.
Casadei called his departed wife "an immense gift: a gift that no one can ever understand. She gave happiness and joy to anyone who had the luck to know her. About our love, you cannot say more than it will remain a dream from which we will never wake." A vigil was held for Gruppioni on the Venice Beach Boardwalk on Monday.
Another person was critically injured and two others were taken to hospitals in serious condition, while 13 others received less severe injuries, the AP also reported.
Campbell's life, who is being held on $1 million bail, remains a mystery. No friends or close friends have stepped up to speak to reporters about him. Much of what is known is from court records. He was reportedly evicted from his apartment in Denver for not paying $655 in rent in March 2012 and was also sentenced to five days in jail after pleading guilty to shoplifting at a mall. He is also accused of trespassing at an outdoor mall in Denver and sentenced to 10 days in jail, additional records indicated.
Police said Campbell initially parked outside a hotel and surveyed the boardwalk on Saturday before swerving from side to side, hitting people from all walks of life on the boardwalk.
An autopsy by the Los Angeles County coroner concluded Gruppioni died from blunt-force trauma to the head and neck and her death has been classified as a homicide.
