Man charged with murder in car rampage on Venice Beach boardwalk

A man accused of ploughing his car through crowds at the Venice Beach boardwalk in Los Angeles, killing an Italian woman on her honeymoon and injuring 16 other people, was charged on Tuesday with murder and multiple counts of assault with a deadly weapon.

Nathan Louis Campbell, who was also charged with 17 counts of felony hit-and-run, pleaded not guilty during a brief arraignment hearing in Los Angeles Superior Court, appearing pale and feeble in blue jail garb and shackles.

“He is quite distraught. He is very saddened that an individual has lost their life,” Campbell’s defence attorney, Philip Dube, told reporters outside court. “He does not believe that he is a homicidal person, he does not set out in life to injure or to harm people, and he is profoundly saddened by this.”

Dube described his 38-year-old client as “fragile, frail and withdrawn” but said he did not believe he was mentally incompetent.

Prosecutors say Campbell was at the wheel of his dark blue 2008 Dodge Avenger as it sped down the packed ocean front walk in Venice Beach shortly before 6pm on Saturday, striking and killing 32-year-old Italian tourist Alice Gruppioni.

Witnesses have said it appeared the driver was aiming for pedestrians along the boardwalk, a major Los Angeles tourist attraction known for its patchwork of street vendors, souvenir shops, restaurants and sporting areas in one of the city’s quirkiest neighbourhoods.

Security footage aired on ABC News shows the car smashing into a crowd of people, backing up and then driving into another throng. Police initially listed 11 people as wounded, but in charging Campbell, prosecutors said 16 people were struck by the car and suffered some form of injury.