Man struck, killed by vehicle outside South LA 7-Eleven

A 58-year-old man was killed at a 7-Eleven in South Los Angeles Saturday night, in what officials said may have been a freak accident.

It happened around 10 p.m. Saturday, at the store at the intersection of W. Century Boulevard and S. Figueroa Street. That's when the Los Angeles Police Department said a 37-year-old woman who may have been getting gas was trying to hit the brake, but inadvertently hit the gas while she was in reverse. Her black pickup truck plowed into several other cars, pinning the 58-year-old victim between the driver and a parked car.

Lupita Rosales, who was at the store when the crash happened called it "scary and shocking."

"I'm really sad honestly because it's just a simple mistake you [thought you] put it in drive but you put it in reverse," Lupita Rosales said.

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A worker who was boarding up the shattered storefront with plywood told FOX 11 that while crashes like this are not always tragic, they're not uncommon.

"Since I've been here — I've only been here six months — I've done at least three in the last four months where, yeah, a vehicle either reversed [but] thought they were engaging in drive," the worker said.

Jesse Rosales, Lupita Rosales' father, called the crash a "simple mistake, if that's what it was." 

"You just don't know. You can step out of your house and you just don't know what's going to happen," Lupita Rosales said. "You don't know if you're going to come back home.

At this point, police are calling the crash a fatal accident, not a crime. They initially took the driver into custody, but she was later released. Police have not said whether drugs or alcohol were involved, but said that though no charges have yet been filed, that could always change.

The man who was killed in the crash has not yet been identified. 

Police also said that several other people were hit by parked cars in the crash but none of them were injured. 

South Los AngelesCrime and Public Safety