The 22-year-old man who has been accused of mowing down 25 Los Angeles sheriff’s recruits with an SUV was “provisionally” released from jail on $2 million bond Thursday evening, all due to the fact that investigators in the case need more time to look through the astounding amount of evidence against him. This is just absolutely infuriating. No way this guy should be back out on the streets. He’s clearly got issues and is a danger to society.
According to the New York Post, Nicholas Joseph Guiterrez had to be released from jail because the laws in California, which clearly benefit the criminal more than the victim, forbids authorities from holding a suspect in custody for more than 48 hours without presenting the case to prosecutors, a spokesperson working for the LA County Sheriff’s Department said.
“Gutierrez will be rearrested once the probe of Wednesday’s horrific incident is complete, Sgt. Gerardo Magos told the Los Angeles Times,” the NY Post reported.
“The evidence is there,” he stated. “We just want to make sure it’s properly presented.”
The report continued, “Authorities allegedly found weed in Gutierrez’ Honda CRV and are trying to determine if he was high at the time, the LA Times reported, citing a source familiar with the investigation. Sheriff Alex Villanueva has said that a Breathalyzer test was administered at the scene and that Gutierrez passed it when he ‘blew a 0.0.'”
According to Villanueva, the suspect left bodies “scattered everywhere in different states of injury,” after he veered his SUV across the road close to the sheriff’s STARS Center Academy located in South Whittier where 75 recruits were on a training run with drill instructors.
Five of those who were struck were seriously injured. More than a dozen others suffered minor to moderate injuries. As of Thursday evening, seven of those who were hit remained in the hospital. Two of those were still considered to be in critical condition.
It truly takes a sick and twisted individual to do something like this to a person. But to do it to a whole group, especially those training for law enforcement positions, it’s utterly deplorable. These are individuals who have agreed to put their lives on the line to serve their local communities and protect the people in their counties. They shouldn’t have to worry about being run over by a lunatic.
“Gutierrez allegedly still had his foot on the accelerator after plowing through the four-column formation of recruits and crashing into a light pole. Witnesses have estimated he was going between 30 and 40 mph and some of the victims said he may have sped up right before the incident. During a Thursday appearance on the NewsNation cable channel, Villanueva said investigators ‘have developed probable cause to believe it was intentional,'” the New York Post stated in their report.
“They went through an exhaustive interview process with everyone involved, with the video surveillance, the statements from the recruits, the physical evidence they have and what they got from the suspect himself, and they were able to form the opinion this was a deliberate act,” he added.
Villanueva was interviewed before Gutierrez was released back on the streets, saying that the suspect would be “provisionally” released “until we can have the case ironclad, iron proof, and submitted to the [district attorney] for filing consideration.”
“Right now, we want to tie up all the loose ends on the case and then present it to the DA,” he continued.
When Guiterrez was asked by a reporter why he ran over the recruits, he refused to provide an answer.
However, his defense attorney, Alexandra Kazarian spoke with KABC Thursday evening and stated that she had “no doubt that an in-depth investigation will confirm that Nicholas is a hard-working young man who holds no animosity towards law enforcement, and this was an absolutely tragic accident.”