A man intentionally struck his girlfriend with an SUV in Pico Rivera late Saturday, shattering her leg, before being arrested at his South Gate home, according to officials and witnesses.
Daniel Lopez, 25, was ultimately found and arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon following the alleged 11:50 p.m. alleged automotive attack in the 9700 block of Woodford Street, near San Gabriel River Parkway, Los Angeles County sheriff’s Lt. Ann Devane said.
The couple became involved in an argument when Lopez accelerated his SUV forward, briefly pinning the woman between his SUV and a parked van before speeding away, the lieutenant said.
Paul Michael Flores, 18, of Whittier said he was passing by the area with his mother when they noticed a man and woman arguing. The man was seated in the driver seat of a Ford Explorer SUV, and the woman was standing outside the vehicle.
As the dispute continued, the SUV began inching toward the woman, who began shouting, “No, no! Stop!,” Flores said.
“That’s when he hit the gas and ran into her,” the witness said. The woman was briefly pinned between the SUV and parked van before the driver fled, and the woman fell to the ground.
“I called 911, made a U-turn, came back,” Flores said. The young man and his mother did their best to comfort and call the injured woman while relaying the information she told them to sheriff’s dispatchers via cell phone.
“She was conscious,” Flores said of the victim. “She was very shaken up, hysterical, crying.”
Deputies and paramedics soon arrived, he said. The woman was taken to Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center in Los Angeles for treatment as deputies investigated the incident, according to Devane.
Upon learning the suspect’s identity, deputies asked South Gate police to check Lopez’s home, Devane said. Officers found him sitting in his parked SUV in front of his home and took him into custody without a struggle.
According to county booking records, Lopez was being held in lieu of $80,000 bail pending his initial court appearance.