Investigators identify wanted suspect in South LA dump truck rampage

Eric Resendiz Image
Wednesday, January 18, 2023
Investigators identify wanted suspect in South LA dump truck rampage
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department identified the suspect in the South LA dump truck rampage as 60-year-old Ronald Lee Dunn.

SOUTH LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- On Tuesday, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department identified the suspected driver of the dump truck rampage that happened in South Los Angeles. Investigators are looking for 60-year-old Ronald Lee Dunn.

"As law enforcement, the video was very destructive," said Lieutenant Jose Salgado with the sheriff's department. "The call was received at 3:38 p.m., and was dispatched at 3:42 p.m., and our first unit arrived there at 3:51 p.m. Overall it was a 13-minute of response time."

According to the department, they only received one 9-1-1 call regarding this incident and it was made after the suspected driver had left the scene in the dump truck. Lieutenant Salgado said it was Dunn's work vehicle and that Dunn slammed into his own house and at least two parked cars. Patricia Dunn said she is sure it was her husband behind the wheel. Patricia said they are currently going through a divorce and she is in the process of obtaining a restraining order against her husband.

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

"If you watch the video it looks like there's a lot of people recording the incident on their phones," said Lieutenant Salgado. "If we would have received more than one call and got more information as to the suspect is ramming a house, ramming the vehicles right now and that was relayed to us then obviously, the response would have been a lot quicker."

Investigators said that before the dump truck rampage, Dunn used his vehicle also to cause damage and the car he was driving was a white 2009 Chevrolet Impala with California license plate 7VWF621. There's a warrant out for his arrest and the sheriff's department is asking for tips from the public.

"Everyone has the option for bail. He can come in, we arrest him," said Lieutenant Salgado. "Depending on what the bail is he can bail out and then go to court on his next scheduled court date."

Dunn faces multiple charges like for criminal threats and felony vandalism.

Meanwhile, family of Patricia Dunn have created a GoFundMe to help her during this time.

Follow Eric on social media:

Instagram.com/abc7eric

Facebook.com/abc7eric

Twitter.com/abc7eric