Man going through divorce crashes dump truck into wife's home, parked cars in South Los Angeles

Monday, January 16, 2023
LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- A man going through a contentious divorce was caught on camera on a smash-up rampage, crashing a dump truck into his estranged wife's home in South Los Angeles and slamming into parked cars on the street.

Patricia Dunn told Eyewitness News the man in the video is her husband. They are going through a divorce, and she says she fears for her life.

"A man under that kind of rage - who's to say what he might do?" she said. "He was trying to kill me. He really was."

She said the area of the house he struck with his car was her bedroom.

The incident happened Sunday afternoon in the area of 107th Street and Normandie Avenue, in South LA's Westmont neighborhood.

Patricia says her husband drove by the home three times. First he came by in a Chevy Impala and crashed into the home while she was inside. He returned in a dump truck and did more damage, then came back in the Impala again.

The home's metal fence is bent to the ground and there are large dents in the exterior of the home right outside her bedroom.

"I was just trying to stay out of the way," she said. "So I don't know if he was drunk or under the influence. I never experienced anything like this in my life."

Neighbor Journey Meggerson caught the rampage on camera and her family tried to comfort Patricia.

"That was honestly the craziest thing I have ever seen," Meggerson said. "I can't even believe."

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department says it took about 30 minutes before law enforcement arrived on scene because the initial call came in as a traffic collision and not a crime.

Patricia says she is filing for a restraining order against her estranged husband.

"Because we are going through a divorce. And he is upset about the fact no contact. He's verbally abusive and I have nothing nice to say."

She says she fears for her life and is staying with someone else in case her husband returns.

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