Enraged Driver Beaten To Death After Trying To Trample Patrons On Sidewalk

A California driver who tried to ram his truck into pedestrians on a busy sidewalk after being booted out of a business died after patrons beat him, police said.

The chaos followed after the driver, identified as 40-year-old Melguin Lopez Santos of Los Angeles, was asked to leave a business in Hawthorne Boulevard on Saturday for “being a nuisance,” the Daily Breeze reported.

After leaving the store, Santos got into an argument with another person and then got into his truck, said Lt. Hugo Reynaga of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

According to police, the man intentionally drove the truck onto a sidewalk towards a group of patrons and crashed into a tree.

Hawthorne police received a call around 12.10 a.m. about the man’s erratic driving, the report said.

As patrons tried to get Santos out of the driver’s seat, he pushed down on the gas pedal and hit the corners of a nearby building. After the second collision, people were able to pull the man out of the car and a fight ensued. It continued until officers arrived at the scene, Deputy Grace Medrano was cited as saying by the Daily Breeze.

Responding officers found the man lying on the ground suffering from blunt-force trauma. He died at the scene, New York Post reported.

Officers were able to recover grainy surveillance footage of the incident. But the fight occurred partially out of the camera’s view and behind the truck, said police.

"You could see there was a fight going on, but you couldn’t tell who was doing what," Reynaga told the Daily Breeze.

Investigators interviewed and released people who were involved in the fight, pending the result of the coroner's autopsy. It is unclear how many people were present at the scene and fled once officers arrived.

Police said they are waiting for the autopsy report to determine the cause of death or if Santos suffered from a medical condition during the fight as the two crashes "weren’t that impactful."

In August, a Minnesota man was arrested for speeding and crashing an SUV under the influence of alcohol. The crash killed the suspect’s 1-year-old baby and injured three others.