The Suspect Was Behind the Killing of Three Homeless Men
By Zach Armstrong
The City of Santa Monica made a settlement of $700,000 with a man accused of killing multiple homeless victims after he claimed negligence when a city officer ran him while laying on the beach.
Jerrid Powell, a 33-year-old man being held without bond at the Los Angeles County Jail, was allegedly laying in a six to eight-inch-deep ditch in the sand in 2019 when a Santa Monica Harbor Services Officer responding to a fire report rolled over him. City Council approved the settlement in June after he filed the negligence lawsuit, according to Lawandorder.com.
Earlier this month, Powell, already in custody for a home robbery turned homicide, was apprehended as the suspect in the shootings of three homeless men spanning four days in Los Angeles’ southeast region. His victims were 37-year-old Jose Vamos, 62-year-old Mark Diggs, and a 52-year-old man. Surveillance showed Powell following 42-year-old L.A. County employee Nicholas Simbolon, whom he would also fatally shoot, from a charging station before robbing and shooting him in a garage.
After Beverly Hills officers fed information about his vehicle into the city’s controversial automatic license plate reading technology, Powell was arrested.
L.A. County Sheriff’s Department asked for the public’s assistance in identifying other potential crimes committed by Powell. As one official previously stated, “Based on his criminal history, he didn’t just start doing this a week ago.”
