BUENA PARK, Calif. — A small crowd waited outside the Los Angeles-area ice cream parlor Friday night when the SUV surged forward from its parking space and hit several people, killing a 73-year-old woman.
Orange County coroner’s officials on Saturday identified the victim as Marisa Malin. She was sitting on a bench outside Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlour when she was struck and became pinned beneath the SUV. She died at the hospital. Six other people were injured.
The SUV was driven by an elderly man, said Orange County Fire Authority Capt. Steve Concialdi. The driver and his female passenger, also elderly, were not hurt, said police Cpl. Andy Luong.
Witnesses said the SUV lurched forward, hit a fence and ran into those sitting and standing between the vehicle and the restaurant, which is in Buena Park, about 20 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles.
“It looked like the guy put his foot on the gas pedal instead of the brake,” Daniel Long, who was eating with his family inside, told KCAL-TV. “There were three people sitting on that bench — he just went straight into them and crushed them up against the window.”
Two people were hospitalized with moderate injuries, three with minor injuries and a sixth person was treated at the scene for minor injuries, Concialdi said. One of the injured was a teenage girl.
