• Alice Gruppioni, 32, who was on her honeymoon died a few hours after she was struck by the crazed driver at 6 p.m. Saturday
• On Sunday, Nathan Louis Campbell, 38, was in custody and faces a murder charge after handing himself in
• Witnesses said the driver was 'out for blood' methodically aiming at pedestrians

By Ryan Gorman

PUBLISHED: 23:25 EST, 3 August 2013 | UPDATED: 00:59 EST, 5 August 2013

An Italian woman on her honeymoon was struck and killed on Saturday night and 11 others injured when a car sped deliberately through a crowd of helpless pedestrians, on the Venice Beach Boardwalk in Los Angeles.

Alice Gruppioni, 32, the daughter of a prominent Italian businessman, was rushed to hospital after the crash that happened at 6 p.m. and tragically died a few hours later of her injuries, with her new husband by her side.

Married just two weeks ago, Gruppioni and her husband, Christian Casadei were in California for their honeymoon, which was a trip across the United States.

'It's a tragedy. There's nothing more to say,' Casadei told the Italian news agency ANSA.

'We were walking, we were happy, we were on our honeymoon and everything, and suddenly everything changed.

'I still can't believe it, and I don't even remember exactly what happened. It's all very confusing.'

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Gruppioni is the daughter of Valerio Gruppioni, who is the president of Group Sira, which is based in Bologna.

The successful businessman was a one-time president of Bologna FC, a top-flight Italy soccer team and the club confirmed her death in a statement offering condolences to the Gruppioni family.

In a statement on Sunday evening, AC Milan, one of the world's largest clubs owned by former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi issued a statement offering their best wished as a 'time of unspeakable pain.'

Today, authorities announced a suspect, Nathan Louis Campbell, 38, was in custody in connection with the horror hit-and-run after he handed himself in. He has been booked into the LA County Jail on a murder charge on $1 million bail.

A makeshift memorial sprung up where Gruppioni was mowed down. Though mostly flowers and candles, the tribute also contains a number of handwritten notes of condolence.

One of the 11 people injured by the crazed driver is in critical condition and two others are seriously injured, according to officials. The remaining eight sustained at least minor injuries and a four-year-old child is among the injured, according to reports.

Witnesses to the carnage that left the popular promenade in chaos told local media that the car drove 'purposefully down the boardwalk,' leaving a trail of injured people and shocked beach-goers in its aftermath.

Describing the car as in control despite going as fast as 60mph, one witness told KCAL that 'the driver was out for blood.'

Security video shows the man parking his black car alongside the seaside boardwalk as the sun sank, surveying the idyllic scene for several minutes before getting back into the car and speeding into the crowd.

It shows hundreds of people walking lazily or sitting at cafes before the black car suddenly appears and sends them scrambling wildly.

According to surveillance footage and witness accounts, the driver of the car swerved around yellow poles there to stop cars from getting onto the pedestrian-only boardwalk.

The driver fled the scene and about an hour later, just as police were circulating word that they were seeking a black Dodge Avenger with a driver in his 20s, Campbell walked into a police station in neighboring Santa Monica, told officers he was involved in the boardwalk incident, Neiman said.

Police then found a car nearby at Ocean Park Boulevard and Beverly Avenue that they believe belonged to the suspect.

Cautionary officers called in the bomb squad to check it for explosives as a precuation.

Another witness described the horrific scene from his vantage-point down the boardwalk.

'I was half a mile from the scene, but you could see just this mass of people trying to get out of the way ... just a lot of people screaming,' runner Daniel Rigedor told the Los Angeles Times.

'I saw somebody flying up in the air… when I came upon the scene, there were a bunch of people on the ground, bloodied,' he said. 'Some looked pretty mangled, head injuries, just a lot of blood.'

'He was trying to kill everyone,' said witness Walter Estrada, 42, who works as a vendor on the boardwalk,
'It happened so fast, I was trying to protect myself.'

Witnesses described the horrific premeditated hit-and-run as like a scene out of a horror film.

'It was horrible. I mean it was like something out of a movie, something you would never expect to see. There were people flying, laying on the ground, tents flying everywhere,' said Katherine Blackburn to KABC TV.

'If he wanted to kill people, he came on a perfect time, 5 p.m. on a Saturday in the summer in Venice Beach.'

Another witness, 35-year-old Louisa Hodge, said victims could be seen wandering around in a daze, dripping with blood.

'There was people kind of stumbling around, blood dripping down their legs looking confused not knowing what had happened, people screaming,' said Hodge, who was out enjoying the day on the Venice Beach boardwalk with a friend visiting from San Diego.

'It was blocks and blocks of people just strewn across the sidewalk.'

Caught on a security camera outside the headquarters of mobile app company SnapChat, people can be seen diving out of the way of the dark blue sedan.

Another witness told NBC Los Angeles that he heard a speeding car and screams before seeing the car speed by the restaurant he works in.

KCAL is also reporting that a four-year-old child is one of the injured, but that remains unconfirmed. An LAFD bulletin stated that the injured are 'all believed to have been pedestrians on the boardwalk.'

Police have not yet released a motive in the shocking act, according to NBC Los Angeles.

'It's tragic the fact that somebody, whether accidental or intentional, would come on the boardwalk, where hundreds, thousands of people come here to enjoy the beach,' said LAPD Lt. Andy Neiman.

'There no indication that he knew anybody that he hit,' LAPD Cmdr. Andy Smith said to CNN.

'It looks like this guy wanted to run over a bunch of people. One guy bent on doing evil.'

The site isn't far from the Santa Monica Farmer's Market where a 2003 crash left 10 dead and 63 hurt, after an 87-year-old man's car accidentally roared through the market.

According to the security video and witness accounts, the man with a baseball cap, gray shirt and white pants parked next to the Cadillac Hotel, twice walking out to the boardwalk before getting into the Dodge Avenger and accelerating, swerving around yellow poles meant to prevent cars from getting into the pedestrian-only area and onto the boardwalk.

'I heard a big "boom, boom," like the sound of someone going up and down the curb, it was super loud,' said Alex Hagan, 22, who was working the desk at the Cadillac Hotel and watched the scene unfold from the start.

The driver knocked over two mannequins then started hitting people, swerving from side to side and often running straight into them.

The crowd of hundreds of couples, families and children who had been sitting at cafes, shopping and walking lazily along in shorts and sandals were sent on a mad scramble to get themselves and others out of the way and to rush to help those who were hit.

The car hit at least three vendors who were sitting at their sales booths, video showed. It hit two women who appeared to be in their 60s, Hagan said. Many ran after the car, screaming and cursing as it sped away, he said.

Hodge said she and her friend, 31-year-old Ashley Taylor, had made note of the numbers walking along the seaside.

'It was a really nice day, there were tons of people out, in fact, we were talking about how packed it was, because we were having a hard time getting through all the people,' said Hodge.

She and her friend stepped into a store to buy a couple of hats, a move that may have saved their lives, and stepped out to see the aftermath, as emergency crews arrived and started putting victims on tarps.

Hodge saw one man and woman lying next to each other, wearing head braces and barely able to move.

'They were just laying next to each other and grasping hands,' Hodge said, 'just a man and a woman holding hands.'

Hours later police were surveying the same stretch of ground for evidence. The Venice boardwalk is a cultural hub in a part of Los Angeles known for its circus-meets-gritty-city eccentricities.

The 1.5-mile ribbon of asphalt that runs along the sand a few hundred yards from the ocean is home to galleries, restaurants, tattoo shops, skateboard parks and the famous outdoor weight room known as Muscle Beach.

It can draw as many as 150,000 people on summer weekends.