LOS ANGELES – A woman driving an old limousine ran over another woman after an apparent dispute over drugs and dragged her for nearly a mile through Skid Row in Los Angeles early Thursday.
Pursuing police finally stopped the car but the victim died at the scene, Sgt. Dan Eun said.
The driver collapsed and was taken away on a gurney. She was sent to a hospital for examination before being booked for investigation of vehicular homicide, Eun said.
The identities of the driver and the victim were not immediately released.
The two women began arguing around 2 a.m. in an industrial area near Skid Row where drug deals are common, Eun said.
"We're assuming there was some kind of dispute over narcotics," Eun said.
The driver, who was in an old, battered black Cadillac limousine left the area but then returned and struck the woman, police said.
"She came back intentionally targeting the victim," he said.
The car dragged the woman for about eight-tenths of a mile through Skid Row streets and at one point drove past a police station. A patrol unit saw the car, Eun said.
"One of our units observed the victim underneath the tire and tried to pull the vehicle over," Lt. Jim Gavin told KTLA-TV.
The car finally stopped a block away. The woman was alive when the car stopped but she was pronounced dead at the scene, Gavin said.
The spot in front of small storefronts is a block from the police station and near homeless shelters that serve of transients who cluster along the streets.
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