(Los Angeles) A car drove into a group of police officers in training in the middle of a jogging session on Wednesday in Los Angeles, injuring 25 people, including five seriously, according to the authorities.
This group of recruits was on their morning jog when a vehicle heading in the wrong direction slammed into them, apparently not slowing down.
“It looked like a plane crash,” Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said at a press conference. “There were so many bodies scattered all over the place with different injuries that it was quite traumatic for everyone involved,” he added.
The sheriff said that “limbs had been severed” among the 25 injured and that one of the patients was on life support.
Video taken at the scene shows a black SUV type vehicle on the sidewalk, its front end damaged. He was driving in the wrong direction at the time of the incident, according to firefighters quoted by the Los Angeles Times.
Some of those officers in training heard the car speed up, the sheriff said.
The driver, arrested at the scene, was not drunk, added Alex Villanueva, but according to police sources obtained by the LA Timesthe driver is said to have told the officers “to have fallen asleep”.
Tests were underway to determine if the 22-year-old was under the influence of any drugs.
The group of joggers was composed primarily of police officers in training for the Los Angeles Sheriff, but also included trainees from other nearby police forces.