Horrific crash in LA: Cars burst into flames, killing 6, including infant, pregnant woman, and unborn baby

Horrific crash in LA: Cars burst into flames, killing 6, including infant, pregnant woman, and unborn baby



A horrific car crash in Los Angeles, California, left six people dead and sent eight people, including the driver, to the hospital.

At approximately 1:30 p.m. local time on Thursday, a black Mercedes-Benz speeding down South La Brea Avenue, going at least 50 mph, ran a red light at Slauson Avenue and crashed into several cars. Some of the cars burst into flames and slammed into a gas station sign on the corner.

The crash was caught on a CCTV camera. WARNING: The video is graphic.



Witnesses at the gas station reported a terrifying scene of fire and debris. Even some of the victims of the crash were ejected from their vehicle. Veronica Esquivel was trying to pump gas when the crash occurred.

"I was about to pump gas and all of a sudden, I hear all of the noises from all of the collisions, and then the fire explosion, and I saw things, metal and things flying in the air. So, I just covered myself behind the pump," Esquivel told reporters.

What Esquivel described next is heartbreaking.

"All of the sudden, a baby literally flew from the middle of the intersection to the middle of the gas station and landed right on the floor in front of me," Esquival said. "One of the workers came and saw me with the baby and took the baby out of my hands. … Somebody tried to resuscitate the baby, but the baby was gone."

Another witness, Alphonso Word, said, "I think the devastating part was you heard the scream. I don’t know if it was one of the victims that was in the car burning, or what."

Police initially reported that five had died in the crash, but during their investigations later that evening, they discovered yet another body in one of the charred vehicles.

Eight other people were taken to the hospital, most with minor injuries. Two of them are adults, and six are children, ranging in age from 13 months to 15 years old. Their names and their conditions remain unknown.

One woman who was taken to the hospital with serious injuries is the driver of the Mercedes-Benz. Police have spoken with her to try to understand what happened. The driver has not been named, but reports say that she is in her 40s. She has been charged with vehicular homicide and gross negligence.

“Just unknown reasons for the high speed at this time,” California Highway Patrol spokesman Franco Pepi said.

“Everyone needs to drive with more due regard because a lot of collisions happen, and this just happens to be at the top of the list of how bad they can get.”

The intersection of La Brea and Slauson is located in Windsor Hills, approximately ten miles from downtown Los Angeles.

Pregnant woman who was injured during Russian bombing in Mariupol has died — her baby is also dead



An injured pregnant woman who was evacuated last week after a maternity hospital was bombed in Ukraine has passed away, according to the Associated Press, which also reported that the woman's baby is dead.

Disturbing video footage shows the woman lying on the stretcher as people moved her in the wake of the attack.

Russia attacks Ukrainian hospital in Mariupol www.youtube.com


She was transported to a different hospital, the AP noted — realizing that she was losing her child, medics said that the woman declared, "Kill me now!"

The AP reported that Dr. Timur Marin said that the mother had suffered a crushed pelvis and detached hip. The child was delivered through a cesarean section but manifested "no signs of life," he noted. He said that "more than 30 minutes of resuscitation of the mother didn’t produce results." He said that, "Both died."

Another pregnant woman survived, but lost some toes due to the attack — she underwent a cesarean section, but the AP reported that her baby was alive.

The news comes as Russia wreaks death and destruction in Ukraine, a sovereign nation that has been fighting to defend itself during Russia's brutal onslaught.

Fox News correspondent Benjamin Hall was also injured while covering the events unfolding in Ukraine.

"Earlier today, our correspondent Benjamin Hall was injured while newsgathering outside of Kyiv in Ukraine," Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott noted in a statement on Monday. "We have a minimal level of details right now, but Ben is hospitalized and our teams on the ground are working to gather additional information as the situation quickly unfolds."

Taliban reportedly kicks pregnant American in stomach as she tries to evacuate Kabul. She is still trapped there and in hiding.



Taliban militants kicked a pregnant American in the stomach as she tried to evacuate Kabul, Afghanistan, with her husband and father — and she's still trapped there and in hiding, Fox News reported.

'Kicked in the stomach'

Fox News' Ainsley Earhardt on Tuesday spoke to Republican U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa of California about the pregnant woman he called "Nasria," who never made it aboard an aircraft and out of danger.

"She was kicked in the stomach, but she was kicked in the stomach well after — as she got through the first checkpoint where she remained for hours, waiting for those people at the south point to supposedly come out and get her," Issa told the cable network. "It wasn't until it was clear they'd closed, [that] they weren't taking anyone else for quite a while, that finally she accepted that she was going to have to go back and hide in her apartment."

The congressman also told Fox News that "Nasria" made "multiple trips" to the airport before U.S. forces departed.

Issa added to Earhardt that about three hours prior to their interview his team had been attempting to arrange a "possible alternative" way out of the country but that a "third party" would be involved and that it was nixed for being "too dangerous."

"We've agreed that she's going to stay sheltered in place, hiding her identity and hoping that her friends will continue to bring her food and keep her secret until frankly we can come up with something new," he also told Fox News, adding that "we know her exact location but literally are afraid to even have a conversation about a rendezvous until we know where and when somebody could meet her."

Earhardt asked Issa if that fear was due to others possibly listening to phone calls, and he replied affirmatively.

"The Russians have already come in, as have the Chinese. Once you control a phone system — the ability to find out where every cell is and who owns it — they have that data now," the congressman told Fox News. "So anyone who wants to remain unknown has to switch phones, turn them off, use all the techniques that you would use if you were in survival, escape, and evasion."

He added that while the Taliban's intentions aren't known, it helps to remember that "the president made an agreement and kept an agreement with a terrorist group that was responsible for harboring those who [attacked] us on 9/11, and then didn't keep his promise to the American people."

Issa also offered the grim reality that after U.S. diplomats moved to Qatar, "there's no longer any diplomatic mission in Kabul. So the idea that either military or diplomatic is going to work is hoping that a terrorist group — still with relations with other terrorist groups — somehow is going to help us get Americans out."

'These people were stranded'

The congressman also declared that "anyone" who says U.S. leaders "didn't break a promise to the American people and [left] people behind is wrong. Anyone who says that there aren't people stranded is wrong. These people were stranded; they did everything they were supposed to do, and they simply were not a priority at the end."

Five-months-pregnant woman stabbed in back by stranger while walking nature trail with her 3-year-old son — and undergoes emergency C-section



A woman who was stabbed by a stranger while walking on a suburban Atlanta nature trail with her 3-year-old son Saturday was five months pregnant and needed an emergency C-section, police told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The paper said the woman, 34, and her baby are both stable and expected to survive, citing Brookhaven Lt. David Snively. The 3-year-old was not injured, the Journal-Constitution added.

The baby is expected to stay in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit "for several months, and the victim is expected to be in the hospital for several more days," Snively added, the paper said.

Arrest made

Police on Thursday morning arrested suspect Christopher Jones, a homeless man familiar to police who has a history of mental illness, the paper said in a separate story.

Here's an image of the suspect police posted to Facebook Monday, along with a description of the violent incident:

What happened?

The woman was walking with her 3-year-old son on the Peachtree Creek Greenway around 5:30 p.m when the suspect tried to talk to her, police said.

Image source: WAGA-TV video screenshot

But when she tried to walk away, the suspect stabbed her in the back several times with a pocket knife and then fled toward Corporate Boulevard, WAGA-TV reported.

"From everything we can tell, this is a completely unprovoked attack," Snively told the Journal-Constitution, adding that the victim lives in Brookhaven. "I recognize that's probably the scariest of the possible explanations... We're very troubled by what led up to this because this is one of those cases where it appears the victim did everything right."

Snively added to the paper that the incident "was not ugly" or profane until it escalated to violence. Police added that the suspect was wearing a white tank top, long, dark shorts, and a dark colored hat with the word "DOPE" written in multi-color letters.

Fundraising underway for medical expenses

A friend of the victim set up a GoFundMe page to cover medical expenses, as the victim and her baby "have a long road ahead of them and a very prolonged hospital stay."

As of Thursday afternoon, the GoFundMe has raised nearly $71,000 of its $80,000 goal.

gofundme for woman stabbed on the peachtree creek greenway in Brookhaven https://t.co/Ro6gch8GaK

— TalesofGA400 (@TGa400) 1623178859.0

The fundraising page also says the victim is a teacher and that her baby is boy.

Here's a video report that aired prior to the suspect's arrest: