On Friday, May 18, at 9:45 p.m. officers of the Santa Monica Police Department were sent to parking structure number seven located on the 1500 block of Fourth Street after the SMPD received a report of a hit-and-run incident.
When the officers arrived, they spoke to the people who had reported the incident and were told that a black Range Rover had hit a pair of vehicles in the structure and that the driver of the Range Rover may well be intoxicated.
They reported the driver was a blonde-haired woman, aged between 30 and 40 years of age, and wearing a beaded necklace.
The victims of the hit and run then told the officers that while they were stopped in the parking structure behind traffic the woman had rear-ended them. They continued saying that they had got out of their vehicle to inspect the damage and as they were doing so they saw the woman exit her Range Rover.
This woman, they said, was stumbling and using her car for support. It was this that led the victims to surmise that she was possibly drunk. Also, as further confirmation they said that the woman had slurred speech.
The woman then got back into her Range Rover and left the scene of the accident. The victims then said that about 15 minutes later this woman returned and hit another parked vehicle.
After one of the victims had run up to her and asked her to pull over, the woman proceeded to pull into a (vacant) parking spot, and then sit in her car for several minutes. This woman then exited her Range Rover and began to walk away, at which point one of the victims chased after her.
As the victim approached the woman an altercation occurred when the woman stabbed the victim with her car key causing a one-inch laceration to the victim’s lower abdomen. It was as this was happening that the other victim called the police.
The woman then punched the other victim in the chest and put her knee into the victim’s groin area.
The officers subsequently arrested this 41-year-old resident of Sherman Oaks and she was charged with driving under the influence, assault with a deadly weapon, hit and run, and assault and battery.
Her bail was set at $30,000.
Editor’s Note: These reports are part of a regular police coverage series entitled “Alert Police Blotter” (APB), which injects some minor editorial into certain police activities in Santa Monica. Not all of the Mirror’s coverage of incidents involving police are portrayed in this manner. More serious crimes and police-related activities are regularly reported without editorial in the pages of the Santa Monica Mirror and its website, smmirror.com.