But the police spokesman was clear about the triggering device. “What caused the accident was the argument the couple was having,” Lt. Williams said.
They Came to Culver City
For the hottest news story of the day in Los Angeles, scores of media flocked to often-overlooked Culver City for Lt. Williams’ concise update in the department’s overflowing second-floor Briefing Room.
As to the asserted matter of whether the passenger in the death car, engaging in a heated argument, grabbed the steering wheel from the driver, the answer remained speculative this morning.
If one of two thresholds were to be met, specific intent or general intent to strike and cause harm, a charge of deliberateness could be filed, Lt. Williams said.
“You would have to ask, did the passenger grab the wheel with the intention of striking the students? Or did he grab the steering wheel in frustration?
“There also is the factor of reasonable assumption. This would be like firing a gun through a door. It is reasonable to assume that someone may be on the other side (who could be struck).”
Responding crisply and succinctly to a barrage of hurried questions at the briefing, Lt. Williams said that detectives still were trying to determine whether the driver or the passenger were more at fault.
Little was known or revealed about the personal lives of the main parties.
The Wednesday afternoon tragedy, at 2:50 in the Hayden Tract— a couple of blocks from the Turning Point private school where the upper-grade students are enrolled —attracted national attention because of its spectacular nature.
A Progress Report
Subject to change, none of the original injuries to the eight students who were struck was regarded as life threatening.
The teens were walking west on National Boulevard, along a sidewalk, returning to their concrete campus at Wesley and National. Two teachers, posted at the beginning and at the back of the line, had accompanied the thirteen- and fourteen-year- olds on a routine outing to nearby Syd Kronenthal Park.
Twenty-four-year-old Carrie Phillips of Santa Monica, a well-liked physical education teacher for several years, known by the student body at Turning Point, was the victim.
Pronounced dead at the scene, it is believed she was blindsided. If the heard the squealing car, she never saw it. In fact, none of the helpless students evidently saw the anger-driven car that frighteningly, unavoidably hurtled toward them.
One parent told thefrontpageonline.com that since Turning Point is a small school, Ms. Phillips, like many employees, was expected to be versatile. She worked with a cross-section of students and carried out a melange of assignments.
The quarreling couple in the death car, nineteen and twenty years old, occupied the front seat of the VW Jedda that knifed into the teenagers. Laura Samayoa, the driver, and her reported boyfriend, Reynaldo Cruz, were booked into County Jail for vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence. Bail for each suspect was set at $400,000.
A day later police said the two were telling conflicting stories about whether the passenger grabbed the steering wheel from the driver, setting the death lurch into motion. She said he did, and through his attorney, Mr. Cruz said he didn’t.
According to eyewitnesses, when the careening car spun around a hundred and eighty degrees and came to a chilling stop, the first thought of the couple was to run away.
He succeeded. She did not.
It Was Time to Split up
The five-foot-seven, one hundred and eighty-pound woman and her friend, five foot eleven, one hundred and sixty pounds, clambered through the window of their crippled car.
Curiously, the couple sought to flee in opposite directions.
Lt. Williams said it is likely that the car ran over the limp body of Ms. Phillips. One report said that the suspects stepped over the body in their desperate effort to escape.
Ms. Samayoa, quoted as saying she was afraid of going to jail, was chased down and cornered by an eyewitness. He finally caught up with her just as Culver City police were arriving at the scene.
Reportedly Mr. Cruz was convinced to surrender to Culver City police Wednesday evening. “I am out of here,” Mr. Cruz told a witness who tried to encourage him to wait until police arrived.
Formal charges are expected to be brought against the pair probably on Monday, the weight depending on whether the District Attorney determines if they were equally culpable.
Speculation over whether the death dart by the Samayoa car was deliberate arose because the fifteen students, flanked by one teacher at each end of their line, clearly presented a plump target.
The Samayoa car was going west on National Boulevard between Jefferson and Washington, with no other car around.
That stretch of National is a notorious haven for speeders, say neighbors and workers.
But Lt. Williams was emphatic in attempting to put to rest an accusation that the portion of National is a perilous speed dive.
He said there have been twelve accidents in that area the past six years, an average of two a year. Only one was connected to speeding.
Making a Judgment Call
At least for now, he said, police are satisfied Ms. Samayoa was not speeding — that an argument between the two was to blame.
The crazy motion of the car caused it to spin out of control, lunge toward a sidewalk on National Boulevard and turn completely around.
Since school officials were not taking questions, a reporter asked Lt. Williams if it were not irresponsible of the school to expose students to the vulnerabilities of crossing busy National Boulevard to reach what used to be known as McManus Park.
The lieutenant quickly quashed the thought. “They were on the sidewalk at the time of the accident,” he said. “That is supposed to be safe.”