Ihor Demianenko

Introduction

Ihor Demianenko — a 61-year-old man from Valley Village in Los Angeles — was arrested and booked on three counts of murder and felony DUI after police say the white vehicle he was driving jumped onto a sidewalk crowded with street vendors and pedestrians outside the North Hollywood Metro station on the evening of November 10, 2026, killing three women and critically injuring two more. Officers from the LAPD’s Valley Traffic Division took him into custody at a hospital the night of the crash, and he was formally booked at the LAPD Valley Jail in Van Nuys early Wednesday with bail set at $6,030,000.

Background Information

Demianenko is 61 years old and resides in Valley Village, a San Fernando Valley neighborhood a short drive from the crash site, according to Los Angeles police. Beyond his age and residence, the outlets that covered the crash and the department’s statements described no occupation and no prior public record for him, and it was not immediately clear whether he had a lawyer who could respond to the allegations. The crash occurred in the heart of North Hollywood’s Arts District, where food stands line the area just outside the Metro station selling pastries, coffee and hot meals to transit commuters and nearby workers.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Booked on suspicion of DUI and murder; no charges filed yet. Demianenko was arrested the night of the crash and booked into jail on felony counts that police say include three murders, with bail at $6.03 million. Prosecutors had not filed formal penal code charges and no arraignment had been scheduled as of the latest reporting; officials were also unable to determine what caused the crash or whether the driver acted intentionally, and the allegations remain unadjudicated.

Los Angeles firefighters rushed to the 5300 block of North Lankershim Boulevard near Chandler Boulevard just before 6 p.m. on November 10 after reports of a vehicle that had struck pedestrians at the busy transit hub. According to police accounts, Demianenko was driving a white vehicle southbound on Lankershim — described as an SUV in early reports and as a minivan in police-sourced accounts — when it jumped the sidewalk barriers, barreled through a blue tarp canopy sheltering vendors selling coffee, tamales, hot dogs and pastries, and mangled the tents outside the station.

Five women were struck. Three — a 40-year-old Hispanic woman, a 53-year-old white woman and a 69-year-old white woman, according to LAPD Valley Traffic — were pronounced dead at the scene, and two women in their 50s were transported to a hospital in critical condition; at least two of the deceased had operated food stands outside the station for years.

First responders had to extricate Demianenko from his severely damaged vehicle; he was conscious and able to talk but appeared to be in shock, and was taken to Dignity Health - Northridge Hospital Medical Center. Valley Traffic officers placed him under arrest at the hospital at 9:10 p.m., and he was formally booked into the LAPD Valley Jail in Van Nuys at 1:39 a.m. on November 11 — with bail set at $6,030,000 and police spokesperson Officer Norma Eisenman saying he was booked on three counts of murder, in addition to the felony DUI booking the department announced.

Public Reaction and Consequences

LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell, who arrived at the scene, described a forensic review of the footage: “Investigators have the video. They’ll run it down and slow-motion it and take it frame-by-frame to determine what happened,” calling it “probably a prolonged but a very deliberate investigation.” The New York Post announced the arrest to its millions of followers the next morning under the headline “Driver accused of killing three women at North Hollywood metro station arrested for DUI.” Mayor Karen Bass wrote that she was “heartbroken for the families of everyone impacted,” and County Supervisor Kathryn Barger said she was “stunned by the tragic loss of life” and would be “closely following the investigation.”

Witness accounts underscored the chaos: burger-stand worker Luis Luna-Guzman described finding a bloodied woman near the bike racks — “I told her, ‘Don’t move, help is coming’” — while Gian Barbarona, who missed the vehicle’s path by inches, said “I felt the wind of the whoosh, of the wind, on my left shoulder.” Noe Orozco, a friend of one of the victims, arrived to find the colleague he drove home from the stands most days dead on the sidewalk. One Metro entrance remained closed overnight while the station’s bus and subway services stayed open, according to an MTA spokesperson.

Current Status

As of November 11, Demianenko remained held at the LAPD Valley Jail in Van Nuys on $6,030,000 bail, and the case was expected to be submitted to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, which will determine formal criminal charges. Prosecutors had not yet filed specific penal code charges beyond the felony booking, no arraignment had been scheduled, and reporting could not determine what substance was suspected in the impairment or how fast the vehicle was traveling before impact. Officials had also not determined whether the crash was intentional, no lawyer for Demianenko had been identified in the coverage, and the investigation remained ongoing.

Impact on Their Career/Life

Demianenko was a private 61-year-old with no public profile until the night of the crash, but he now sits in jail under $6 million bail with three murder counts attached to his booking record, facing a District Attorney’s review that could convert the booking into filed charges and, ultimately, a trial. The crash also gutted a small community of vendors who had worked the same sidewalk for years: the dead included longtime fixtures of the stand row outside the station, one of them a woman a friend drove to work each morning, and city officials pledged to establish “exactly what happened” through the frame-by-frame video review detectives have begun.

Sources

NY Post, “Driver accused of killing three women at North Hollywood metro station arrested for DUI,” Nov 11, 2026 — source
NY Post, “Three killed after car slams into crowd in North Hollywood,” Nov 10, 2026 — source
FOX6 Now (Fox Television Stations), “Driver arrested on suspicion of DUI after 3 killed in North Hollywood crash,” Nov 11, 2026 — source
WTAE (Associated Press), “Police: Driver in deadly crash in Los Angeles arrested on 3 murder counts,” Nov 11, 2026 — source
ABC7 Eyewitness News (KABC), “Driver accused of killing 3 women in crash near NoHo Metro station arrested on suspicion of DUI,” Nov 11, 2026 — source
KTLO, “3 dead after SUV crashes into pedestrians in Los Angeles,” Nov 10, 2026 — source
@nypost trigger tweet, Nov 11, 2026 — source