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Carjacking suspect crashes near holiday event
Four people, including a child, were hurt after a carjacking suspect crashed near a holiday event in Beverly Hills.
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - A suspected carjacker is in handcuffs, but not before he allegedly hit a group of people near a Christmas tree lighting festival with the car he was accused of stealing in Beverly Hills.
The Beverly Hills Police Department responded to a call of a carjacking in the 400 block of North Bedford Drive a little after 7 p.m. A woman told police at the scene the suspect stole her BMW before taking off from the scene.
Shortly after BHPD received a second 911 call near the intersection of Wilshire Boulevard and Camden Drive – a very short walk away from the site of the Rodeo Drive holiday lighting celebration. At the scene, two men, a woman and a child needed to be taken to the hospital after the hit-and-run crash. The suspected carjacker took off from the scene before police arrived.
"We thought it was an accident," a witness explained. "He jumped out and took off and then some people took off after him."
Officers eventually arrested 22-year-old James Portul, the suspected carjacker, after officers found him in the 200 block of South Beverly Drive. Portul is being booked for carjacking and hit-and-run with injury, BHPD said.
Officials did not give the conditions of the four people hurt in the hit-and-run crash.