Car Rampage Suspect Had Just Moved to LA

Nathan Campbell had arrest record in Florida, Colorado
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 6, 2013 12:02 AM CDT
Car Rampage Suspect Had Just Moved to LA
Alice Gruppioni's aunt and father-in-law comfort each other near a makeshift memorial for Gruppioni on Ocean Front Walk at Venice Beach.   (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

The drifter accused of deliberately driving into a crowd at a Los Angeles beach over the weekend had only been in town for a few weeks, investigators say. Nathan Campbell, 38, has a history of drug and alcohol abuse and has been arrested in Florida and Colorado for crimes including shoplifting, trespassing, and reckless driving, but detectives have yet to uncover a motive for the Venice Beach rampage that killed one person and injured 16, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Investigators say Campbell, who is being held on $1 million bond, made statements implicating himself when he turned himself in a few hours after the incident. At the beach, a makeshift memorial has sprung up for Italian tourist Alice Gruppioni, 32, who had been married for just three days when she was killed by the speeding car, the AP reports. "She gave happiness and joy to anyone who had the luck to know her," says her husband, who suffered minor injuries. "About our love, you cannot say more than it will remain a dream from which we will never wake." (More Nathan Campbell stories.)

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