Photo: Los Angeles Police Department
A California man accused of murdering four people in Los Angeles recently reached a $700,000 settlement with the City of Santa Monica for injuries he sustained in 2019 after getting run over by a patrol vehicle.
Jerrid Powell was sleeping in a ditch on the beach in Santa Monica when an officer ran over him while responding to a fire. He suffered severe injuries and filed a lawsuit in 2020.
Police said that Powell used the money from the settlement to purchase a car and the gun he allegedly used to kill three sleeping homeless men. He is also accused of killing a man in a home invasion robbery.
The first murder occurred around 3 a.m. on November 26, when 37-year-old Jose Bolanos was shot and killed while he slept in an alley.
The next day, 62-year-old Mark Diggs was shot and killed around 5 a.m. while he was sleeping. Then, on November 29, the killer struck again, murdering another homeless man, who was not identified.
On November 30, Powell was arrested after Nicholas Simbolon was murdered in front of his home.
Investigators linked Powell to all four murders, and he was charged with four counts of murder, robbery, and being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Officials have not determined a motive for the killings.