Los Angeles police have arrested the driver who plowed into people outside the North Hollywood Metro station on Tuesday evening, killing three women, and booked him on three counts of murder and on felony driving under the influence, according to police statements carried in several reports. Police identified him as Ihor Demianenko, 61. Bail was set at about $6 million.
Those are booking charges. Whether he is formally charged, and with what, is up to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office, which had not announced a decision as of Wednesday afternoon.
Demianenko is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.
What happened outside the station
The crash happened at 5:55 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 10, at 5350 N. Lankershim Blvd., according to the Los Angeles Fire Department's incident alert. The address is at the station, the northern end of the Metro B Line subway. Firefighters found three people dead at the scene, and paramedics took at least three more to hospitals in critical condition.
Police said the vehicle, a minivan heading south on Lankershim Boulevard, left the road and hit people near the station. The women who died were 40, 53 and 69. Their names have not been released. Mayor Karen Bass said the vehicle struck "a group of street vendors and pedestrians." She added, "I'm heartbroken for the families of everyone impacted."
What comes next
On Tuesday night an LAPD captain said investigators did not yet know whether the crash was deliberate or an accident. Police have not released a report on the cause, and no court date had been announced by Wednesday afternoon. The fire department referred questions about the crash to the LAPD, which is investigating it as incident 3818.
