Footage shows the moment the alleged drunk driver of a BMW apologized to a family moments after he sent their car careening into a building.
What Led to The Crash
The exchange, filmed early Saturday in Long Beach, was recorded shortly after the unnamed motorist is said to have plowed into the business as well, after allegedly racing another car down E 7th and Rose Avenue.
That’s when cops say he clipped the back of an unrelated Toyota 4Runner, sending both cars flying up the curb straight through the loft and gallery.
Both cars ended up just inches from the business’s owners, they revealed in an ensuing post to GoFundMe, after having their ‘lively hood[sic] and all of our years of hard work taken from [them] in mere matter of minutes.’
They claimed the crash stemmed from drunk driving – a belief cops in the ritzy SoCal town seemed to substantiate after arresting him on suspicion of DUI. Their investigation, some 24 hours later, remains ongoing.
Apology Not Accepted
‘I’m sorry!’ the driver of the BMW is heard shouting as he is carted off in a stretcher, conscious enough to arch his head toward the occupants he hit, who were not quick to offer any forgiveness.
‘Shut up!’ an unseen female voice at this point shouts back, while the BMW driver is seen with bandages wrapped around his head and jaw
‘It’s my fault!’ he yells back, seemingly slurring his words.
‘No, you’re not!’ another voice, this time a man, answers, before hitting the injured motorist with an expletive.
‘You don’t know what sorry is,’ he adds, as the clip cuts out.
The man was then brought to a hospital for unspecified injuries, as footage from the scene showed some of the damage he left behind.
The business, art store Open Gallery LB, saw its entire storefront savaged, and the BMW and Toyota 4runner both firmly lodged in the husk that remained.
Photos from the inside of the art gallery showed the extent of the destruction, with the interior almost unrecognizable, covered in debris.
The owners, identified as Liz Garibaldi and Artos Sacuedo, went on to reveal in a post to the crowdfunding website how close they and their 13-year-old son came to dying as a result of the crash.
They recalled later in the day how both cars came careening into the business ‘just inches from us’ while each of them were still inside. The three were filmed distraught at the scene after narrowly surviving.
Victim Impact Statement
The couple wrote: ‘The 4runner plowed through the gallery into the dividing wall landing in our bedroom.
‘The other car [the BMW] went straight into the front of our loft where my son’s room was.
‘He was somehow shoved into a corner and unharmed. I climbed over all the rubble yelling for him to finally see his eyes open staring at me.
‘He’s 13 years old and shouldn’t have to go through something this traumatic, bc someone wanted to race down 7th st.
‘Luckily I pulled my son out of the rubble completely unharmed and am beyond grateful for his health and ours,’ she continued, after stringer service O.C. Hawk told KTLA that the family the Toyota had been carrying were miraculously uninjured.
That too was the case for the Saucedos, who revealed that their insurance carrier had recently ditched them to move out of state.
‘We are completely shattered and don’t know how to move forward,’ the couple claimed.
‘We were doing everything in our power to make Long Beach and our local community a place for thriving art and love.
‘Sadly this has all been snatched from us. Our business insurance was recently canceled bc the company pulled out of California as have many other insurance companies have recently done as well, which no one knows why this is happening.’
