A transient suspected of killing one person and striking several others when he sped his car down Venice Boardwalk was a familiar face at Malibu’s Community Labor Exchange and had been at the center just hours before heading to Venice, the Contra Costa Times reported.
Nathan Louis Campbell, 38, is suspected of driving down the Venice Boardwalk in a blue Dodge last Saturday afternoon, killing one person and striking 16 others. He has since been charged with one count of first-degree murder, 17 counts of hit and run and 16 counts of assault with a deadly weapon.
Campbell had spent “seven or eight months” frequenting the Malibu Community Labor Exchange in 2012 before disappearing from the area and resurfacing in July this year, according to others who frequent the center.
Those who came to know him described him as a “nice, helpful guy, who never seemed prone to violence.” Hours before allegedly speeding down the tourist haven, Campbell invited another frequent face at the day-labor center to join him in Venice.
“I was with him and he asked me if I wanted to go to Venice with him to do laundry,” Mark Hewitt told the Contra Costa Times. “But I told him I didn’t need to go. When he left, I felt like everything was fine. I was shocked when I heard. Maybe if I’d have gone, he wouldn’t have done this.”