After a vehicle crashed just outside a YMCA Center in North Hollywood Friday night, a woman inside was found shot while the vehicle’s wounded driver ran into the center pleading for help, according to police and witnesses.
About 7:45 p.m., officers got a call about a vehicle crashed into a pole along the 5100 block of Tujunga Avenue, Los Angeles Police Department Officer Drake Madison said. A woman who was found inside the vehicle had a gunshot wound to the leg, he said.
Madison said only one person was transported to medical treatment but he confirmed a man found in a nearby business was also shot. It’s unclear which person was treated and no fatalities were immediately reported.
Witnesses told KTLA a man had run into the East Valley Family YMCA after he and the woman were both shot while still driving the car. They also described hearing shots ring out just before the crash.
A man named David said he heard two shots and then saw the vehicle turn a corner — followed by three more shots.
He said the injured driver, who appeared to be shot in the arm, ran inside the youth center after the crash, screaming: “Somebody call the police, I don’t wanna die!”
“He was running all over and the whole hallway was full of blood,” David said.
Outside, a female passenger was also shot and still inside the vehicle, he said. David’s wife Maria then went over to help the woman.
“So I ran out, and she was screaming,” Maria said. “I mean literally, just screaming to the top of her lungs. And she was saying, ‘Am I paralyzed? Am I paralyzed?'”
Maria said she tried to calm the woman down and find a tourniquet to stop the flow of blood from her wound. But LAPD officers arrived soon after and an ambulance got to the scene, she said.
She said the injured woman appeared to have several gunshot wounds to her leg. She also said those inside the YMCA center kept cool under the circumstances.
“The people that were in there at that time, the way they came together — it was awesome,” Maria said. “There was no kind of chaos or confusion amongst anyone.”