LOS ANGELES—Police released cell phone and surveillance images Dec. 28 showing possible additional victims of a South Los Angeles street takeover that killed a 24-year-old woman, touting a $50,000 reward for information leading to the driver who struck her, while also asking anyone else who may have been injured to come forward.
Elyzza Guajaca, a nursing student, was fatally struck by a driver involved in the street takeover, which occurred around 9 p.m. Dec. 25 at the intersection of Crenshaw Boulevard and Florence Avenue.
Police said Guajaca was standing with a group of people on the northeast corner of the intersection when she was struck by a black Chevrolet Camaro that was doing “doughnuts” during the street takeover.
She died at a hospital. The driver of the Camaro abandoned the vehicle and fled on foot, police said.
Los Angeles police on Tuesday said detectives have identified at least six or seven additional victims who appeared to have been injured by the vehicle, thanks to videos from the scene. Some of them appeared to have been critically injured, police said.
Detectives released some of those videos Wednesday, showing some people being assisted into vehicles and driven away from the scene.
They asked anyone who was injured to come forward, and reminded residents of a standing $50,000 reward on offer for information that leads to the perpetrator of a fatal hit-and-run.
Los Angeles Police Department Detective Ryan Moreno told reporters the department is doing what it can to crack down on street takeovers, and would like to see people face harsher penalties.
“[We’re] trying to mirror some other cities where they take cars and they crush the cars, the cars are gone,” Moreno said. “Right now ... [we] take them for 30 days. And it is affecting it somewhat, but there’s a lot, a lot going on, it’s a lot. ... On this night, there were probably I would say close to 200 folks, if not more, in the intersection.”
“My sister was an aunty to my beautiful girls who loved her so much,” Louie Guajaca said in the appeal. “She was a beautiful sister who loved big. She was a daughter who always wanted to be with [family] around and have family time. She was the rock to our family. She was just a good, goofy, funny, outgoing person. She loved all her close friends and family.”
The page had raised more than $28,000 as of Thursday afternoon.
On Tuesday, Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable President Earl Ofari Hutchinson said he witnessed part of the deadly street takeover Sunday night and called on Mayor Karen Bass and the city council to declare a state of emergency on such takeovers, similar to the declaration recently issued by the mayor on homelessness.
“Street takeovers present—as witnessed by the death at Florence and Crenshaw and numerous injuries to life and damage to property at other takeover sites in the city—a grave problem for city officials, Hutchinson said in a statement.
“It has sparked community outrage and demand for stepped-up action. A state of emergency will further empower law enforcement and citizens to concentrate time, energy, and resources on this deadly problem.”
Anyone with any information on Sunday night’s crash was urged to contact Crime Stoppers at 800-222-8477.
