LOS ANGELES (AP) — The driver of a minivan that crashed outside a Los Angeles metro station, killing three women and critically injuring two more, was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence and three counts of murder, police said Wednesday.
Authorities said the driver was able to talk but appeared to be in shock after Tuesday's crash, which hit pedestrians and food vendors at a busy intersection in the North Hollywood neighborhood during the height of the evening commute.
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Members of law enforcement walks next to a damaged car at the scene of a vehicle crash, involving multiple fatalities, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026, in the North Hollywood section of Los Angeles. (AP Photo/David Swanson)
This photo made with a smartphone, shows the scene of a vehicle crash, involving multiple fatalities, on Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026, in the North Hollywood section of Los Angeles. (AP Photo/David Swanson)
Debris lies at the scene of a vehicle crash, involving multiple fatalities, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026, in the North Hollywood section of Los Angeles. (AP Photo/David Swanson)
A damaged vehicle lies at the scene of a vehicle crash, involving multiple fatalities, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026, in the North Hollywood section of Los Angeles. (AP Photo/David Swanson)
Police identified the driver as Ihor Demianenko, 61, who lives in the Valley Village neighborhood. Demianenko was booked early Wednesday and his bail was set at a little over $6 million, records show. He was treated for minor injuries at a hospital, police said.
It wasn't immediately clear if Demianenko had a lawyer who might speak on his behalf. In California, drivers under the influence of drugs or alcohol can be charged with murder under certain circumstances.
The white Toyota Sienna was traveling at an “unsafe speed” at around 6 p.m. when it veered to the right, ran off the road and collided with a light, Los Angeles police said in a news release Wednesday. It came to rest under a food vendor’s tent.
The force of the collision threw victims in different directions, according to the news release. The driver was trapped in the vehicle until rescuers arrived.
Luis Luna-Guzman was working at a nearby burger stand when he heard a loud boom and saw people on the ground along with food and cups. People started running toward the crash.
Luna-Guzman said he found an injured woman lying near some bike racks, her face, arms and legs bloody. Her eyes were closed as she moaned in pain.
“I told her, ‘Don’t move, help is coming,’” Luna-Guzman said, adding that he saw a woman’s body nearby, while another woman was lying unmoving on the stairs leading to the station.
The three women who died were between the ages of 40 and 60, according to the police news release. Authorities haven't released their names. The two injured women are in their 50s.
The minivan was still on the sidewalk Tuesday night under the food vendor’s tent, its driver’s-side door open and an air bag deployed. Fire engines and emergency crews worked nearby as a helicopter flew overhead.
Investigators will go through video of the crash frame by frame, Police Chief Jim McDonnell said.
“It will be probably a prolonged but a very deliberate investigation to determine what happened here,” he said.
The California Supreme Court ruled in 1981 that drivers who kill someone with a vehicle can be charged with second-degree murder if they are found to have acted with “wantonness and a conscious disregard for life” that could support a finding of implied malice. The court upheld a prosecutor's decision to file murder charges against a driver who was determined to be legally intoxicated at the time of a fatal crash and drove at high speeds, ran a red light and had a near miss right before.
Thanawala reported from Atlanta.
Members of law enforcement walks next to a damaged car at the scene of a vehicle crash, involving multiple fatalities, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026, in the North Hollywood section of Los Angeles. (AP Photo/David Swanson)
This photo made with a smartphone, shows the scene of a vehicle crash, involving multiple fatalities, on Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026, in the North Hollywood section of Los Angeles. (AP Photo/David Swanson)
Debris lies at the scene of a vehicle crash, involving multiple fatalities, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026, in the North Hollywood section of Los Angeles. (AP Photo/David Swanson)
A damaged vehicle lies at the scene of a vehicle crash, involving multiple fatalities, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026, in the North Hollywood section of Los Angeles. (AP Photo/David Swanson)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected accusations that Israel has been delaying the entry of winter supplies into the Gaza Strip as severe rains flood makeshift tents, worsening conditions in the enclave this week.
Iran's Revolutionary Guard said that a tanker caught fire after hitting a naval mine early on Wednesday in the Strait of Hormuz. And Israel struck Gaza twice, killing three Palestinians.
Here is the latest news from the Middle East on Wednesday. Read our full coverage here.
Netanyahu denied that Israel was responsible for worsening conditions for Palestinians in Gaza's tent camps, which have been hit by severe winter flooding.
He instead blamed Hamas, saying the Palestinian militant group refuses to disarm and seizes humanitarian aid for military use. He provided no evidence for the aid seizure statement.
The prime minister's remarks came after the U.S.-created Board of Peace said Monday that Israel’s delays in allowing winter supplies into Gaza had “exacerbated the consequences of a foreseeable humanitarian challenge.”
The United Nations and other aid groups say more than 150,000 tents and pumps to remove floodwater are ready to enter Gaza, but Israel hasn't authorized their entry.
“No more delays,” Tom Fletcher, the U.N.'s humanitarian chief, said in an X post on Wednesday. “We are now seeing the consequences of delays, blockages and funding cuts: lives lost, a population once again at great risk."
Torrential rain has battered the war-torn enclave in recent days, damaging tens of thousands of makeshift tents. At least four people died Sunday when a large sandstone slab collapsed.
An Israeli strike on Wednesday morning killed one person in Gaza City, and a second later in the day killed two more people, according to Shifa Hospital, where the bodies were taken.
The Israeli military said that both strikes targeted military operatives. It didn't provide additional details.
Large-scale fighting has slowed since Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire deal in October 2025, but Israel continues to launch near-daily strikes that have killed more than 1,600 Palestinians.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said that a tanker caught fire early Wednesday after striking a naval mine while traveling along an unauthorized route through the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway, Iranian state media reported.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center, a British military agency that monitors maritime safety, said that a tanker was involved in an incident while transiting the strait.
The agency didn't identify the tanker. Further details, including the crew’s status, weren't immediately available. It was unclear whether the Iranian and UKMTO reports referred to the same incident.
Col. Turki al-Maliki, a military spokesperson for the Saudi-backed forces operating in Yemen, said in an X post that they had intercepted three missiles that the Iran-backed Houthi rebels launched toward Saudi Arabia's capital, Riyadh, on Wednesday.
The interceptions were the latest announced this week as the Iran-aligned rebels continue to use parts of Yemen they control to launch attacks toward Saudi Arabia and disrupt trade through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
Houthi rebels held a mass funeral on Wednesday for the 44 people they say were killed near the Yemeni capital of Sanaa during recent airstrikes conducted by Saudi Arabia.
Associated Press images showed people mourning their loved ones, including seven members of the same family.
“They were women and children,” said Hamad al-Bas, a relative of one of the victims. "We must avenge their deaths, no matter how long it takes.”
The Saturday strikes, which wounded 40 others, were part of an escalation in fighting since the summer between the rebels and the Saudi-backed government forces.
A Cairo judge postponed the retrial of the editor-in-chief of one of Egypt’s last independent news outlets for a week after her defense lawyers asked him to recuse himself, the outlet said.
Lina Attalah, a co-founder and editor-in-chief of Mada Masr, is challenging a one-year prison sentence and a fine imposed in absentia on charges of operating a website without a license and spreading false news.
Mada Masr said Wednesday that her lawyers sought the judge’s recusal, because he had ordered the outlet’s closure late last month in a separate case. Attalah's retrial is now scheduled for Nov. 18 while hearings on Mada Masr’s appeal against its closure begin on Nov. 25.
Mada Masr has investigated allegations of government corruption and human rights violations amid a widening media crackdown in Egypt.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif called for dialogue and restraint to ease regional tensions during a meeting Wednesday with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, according to Sharif's office.
Sharif expressed deep concern over the prolonged conflict as the two spoke on the sidelines of the U.N. climate summit in Turkey, his office said. The prime minister stressed the need to build on an interim deal reached between the United States and Iran in June.
This report will be updated throughout the day as new developments emerge.
Palestinians gather beside their damaged tent a day after it was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Palestinians inspect damage to a building and tents a day after they were hit by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Palestinians inspect damage to a building and tents a day after they were hit by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Palestinians inspect damage to a building and tents a day after they were hit by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Palestinians inspect their damaged tent a day after it was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
