by Mark McDermott and Liz Mullen
Braun Levi, an 18-year-old Loyola High School tennis star, was tragically killed by a suspected drunk driver while crossing Sepulveda Boulevard shortly after midnight Sunday.
The accident occurred in the early hours of May 4 after Braun and three of his friends left a nearby gathering and went to find some food. At 12:46 a.m., the Manhattan Beach Police Department responded to a report of a collision on the 100 block of South Sepulveda. Officers arrived to find Levi laying on the street next to an SUV with a dented hood and broken windshield. He was transported to a local hospital but died from his injuries shortly thereafter.
Police arrested Jenia Belt, a 33-year-old Los Angeles resident. MBPD’s initial press release indicated Bell was charged with drunk driving and murder. As of Wednesday, she remains in the MBPD jail, and the agency responsible for prosecution, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office, has yet to file charges.
“The case remains under review,” a District Attorney spokesperson said Wednesday.
The LA Times reported Monday that Belt was driving with a suspended license due to a previous DUI charge.
According to sources at Mira Costa High School, where the boys who were with Braun are students, they were at a nearby party in East Manhattan Beach and left to find something to eat. Two of the boys had crossed, and another was at the median and had just turned to urge Levi to hurry when the car struck him. The boy who’d been at the median called 911 and waited with Levi as police and paramedics arrived. The accident took place just two blocks from where 18-year-old MCHS student Ford Savela lost his life in January, struck by a drunk driver. The student who called 911 was also a friend of Savela. He and the other boys are receiving grief counseling at MCHS.
Levi and his family were from Pacific Palisades but had relocated to Hermosa Beach after losing their home to the wildfires in January. Levi was ranked 50th nationally as a tennis player and was committed to the University of Virginia next fall. Just days before the acciden t, he and his doubles partner had won their fourth consecutive Mission League championship. He was a four year varsity player and team captain.
But beyond his athletic feats, Levi was known as an exuberant, kind-hearted young man who was the life of every room he entered.
“Braun was a shining presence in our Loyola family, bringing light, joy, and inspiration to everyone he touched,” wrote Loyola Principal Jamal Adams in an email sent to the school community on Sunday.
“Braun Levi is a legend for good reason,” Georgia Bryan, a close family friend, wrote on Instagram. “Whether you were lucky enough to cross paths with him for an hour or a lifetime, he left an impression. It was impossible to be sad or bored whenever Braun was around, and his gift for lifting those around him was truly singular. My honorary little brother and favorite instigator, I know you’re throwing the wildest party wherever you are. Live like Braun.”
His doubles partner Cooper Schwartz, who’d been friends with Levi since they competed against each other at age 8, also posted a tribute on Instagram.
“You’re forever who we toast to, who we laugh about when we try to explain anything you’ve ever done, and who we cry about knowing we can’t just give you a hug,” he wrote. “18 years or 125, no one had a better life than you did Braunny. The tears are joyful because of that.”
“I will spend the rest of my life striving to live with the same heart, strength, and kindness that you’ve shown these past 19 years,” wrote his sister, Adelle, on Instagram. “You are deeply loved, and words can’t begin to express how much you’ll be missed.”
The Manhattan Beach City Council held a moment of silence in honor of Levi on Tuesday night. It was the third loss of life on Sepulveda since December, when another pedestrian was struck and killed between 8th and 9th Streets. Mayor Amy Howorth addressed the accident directly, speaking to those in council chambers.
“We’ve received many, many, many valid concerns about safety on Sepulveda Boulevard…particularly that stretch south of Manhattan Beach Boulevard, which tragically has been the site of multiple fatal accidents in recent years, and just three of traffic fatalities involving pedestrians since December,” Howorth said. “So obviously, we take this very seriously, as does the whole city and staff and our traffic engineer. We’re committed to improving safety for everybody.”
Sepulveda is controlled by Caltrans, Howorth acknowledged, but said the City is engaged with the agency to make changes.
“You need to know that our traffic engineer has been aware and has been urgently reaching out to Caltrans for a while now,” she said. “And we are now working with our state senator, Ben Allen, as of today, to get Caltrans to listen to us. Because they must understand the urgency, and they need to act with urgency and implement robust safety protocols. And we at the city are going to leverage every available resource to continue to advocate for those measures that protect our residents. Our police department’s traffic bureau and patrol personnel will be conducting high visibility traffic enforcement focusing on primary collision factors such as speed along that stretch of road, and we’ll work with our regional partners on either side of us to conduct DUI saturation patrols in Manhattan Beach…It is incumbent upon us to do more than we can so this never has to happen again.”
Resident Nazly Westernoff urged the council not to wait for Caltrans to take action.
“It feels a little bit unfair to us as citizens to wait for Caltrans,” she said. “I spent so much time today reading about Caltrans…It is a handcuff and not one that we should suffer through. So I am urging, I am asking, for us as a city to do better than Caltrans.”
Resident Tanya Monaghan said her son was with Braun Levi the night the accident occurred. She was at Gelson’s when the accident occurred that caused a pedestrian death in December.
“Three lives taken along the same stretch of Sepulveda Boulevard,” she said. “This is not a tragic coincidence. It is clear signal that the current conditions on this major thoroughfare are unsafe and unacceptable. We cannot afford to wait for another tragedy to take action. Whether it’s Caltrans or the city’s responsibility, really, we just need to work together. I just don’t want this to get blocked by, ‘Whose responsibility is this?’ I am very willing, and I know many people….Everybody wants to help out with this and make our city safer. So I implore you to take immediate action to make these roads safer.”
Monaghan said possibilities include new speed limits, flashing lights, costlier tickets, more enforcement, DUI and driver’s education programs, and installing barriers or even an overpass,
“We don’t want Manhattan Beach to be remembered for preventable deaths, especially of our young,” she said. “We want this community to act safely and compassionately when it’s clear that lives are at risk.”
Another local mother, who did not identify herself by name, told the council that her own 17-year-old child had prom Saturday night, as did Redondo Union and Chadwick School.
“Our children were out late,” she said. “And we wake up to a Nixle [message] that a child had died. There is never a circumstance that this is going to be okay. What I love about our community, what I appreciated from the start, is that we are very tight knit, and so at 6 a.m. I started getting texts and messages. I’m a physician in this community, and I have very close friends who all have teenagers…We cannot let this happen again. Two children in three months is completely unacceptable. Our children are 17 and 18. They need their independence. These are pedestrians. They weren’t doing anything wrong. Killed by drunk drivers. So I really feel like it’s a civic responsibility that we do something to take drunk drivers off the roads. This is Manhattan Beach. We can do whatever we need to do to keep our children safe. And we need to do more.”
Braun Levi’s death is a terrible tragedy and I certainly can’t imagine the loss that his parents and friends must feel however, blaming the roadway and a ‘suspected’ drunk driver for his death is evading his and his friend’s culpability in this incident. I know – the haters are going to crucify me for even considering that Braun’s actions and decisions led to his untimely death however, it is clear from his friend’s statement that he and his friends were taking huge risks crossing PCH that night!
What were teenagers doing crossing PCH outside of a marked pedestrian crosswalk at 12:45am?!?!?
That in itself is classified as jay-walking. To do that in front of oncoming traffic in the dark is a classic case of poor judgement and how young people do not realize the grave risk that such an action carries.
To immediately fault the driver 100% and accuse them of being intoxicated – without proof or due process is just grossly unreasonable. To assume that they too aren’t suffering deeply from what happened as the driver had the sense and decency to remain at the scene
Now for basic physics – a several thousand pound vehicle cannot come to an instant stop even with a trained and sober professional at the wheel if a pedestrian jumps out in front of it while it is travelling the speed limit (25 mph or more) in broad daylight let alone in the dark – in this case a 35 mph zone and I might add there has been no mention that the vehicle was speeding.
Something has changed because in the last 5+ years I have witnessed a sharp increase in suicidal pedestrians attempting to jump in front of incoming cars whether in crosswalks or jay-walking. A crosswalk and/or traffic light does not confer super human abilities on a pedestrian who ignores an approaching vehicle – they may be right but they may also be invisible to the driver due to a myriad of reasons! Pedestrians will claim that they have the right of way – and they do – but that doesn’t excuse unnecessarily risky moves because in the end, A PEDESTRIAN WILL LOSE badly, every single time if they are hit by a vehicle – no matter how slow!! Sure they may be legally right – laying on the ground with head injuries, broken bones and internal injuries but in the end they lose regardless of their legal standing in such an accident and no matter how much money they win or how long a driver is convicted for.
Today, every single pedestrian accident becomes a crusade to make roads ‘safer’ and yet regardless of the number of traffic lights, street lights, blinking yellow lights, crosswalks and other traffic controls – risky behavior cannot be eliminated. In fact – the more traffic lights that are installed – all of which are mis-timed – create additional risky behaviors on the part of drivers who are frustrated by lights that turn red one – after – another without any consideration to maintaining traffic flow. So, we end up with the worst of both – a mix of pedestrians and drivers both taking unnecessary chances and the resulting tragedies that follow.
I’m not suggesting that road safety doesn’t need to be improved in some areas – but too often such ‘fixes’ are nothing more than a monument to memorialize a person’s tragic death and are actually making things worse.
I don’t mean to be callous, it’s called an accident for a reason. Instead of the knee jerk reaction of accusing a driver of wrongdoing without due process and subsequently making everyone pay as a result of a youth’s poor judgement forever, maybe time and effort would be better spent educating young people of the harsh reality that the rules of physics will always prevail, that it is best to be patient and cautious – even when crossing roads at signals and crosswalks and to NEVER cross a multi-lane highway in the dark outside of a marked crosswalk.
Any death or serious accident is a tragedy. As Bob Adkins says there are 2 sides to a story. How often do you see teenagers looking at their cell phone while crossing (legally) at a crosswalk? Should you trust your life to every driver obeying every rule and you not accepting any responsibility to look both ways? What color clothing was the pedestrian wearing? As a retired emergency physician I can say that in my personal experience somewhere between 95 and 99% of all pedestrians struck by autos were wearing dark clothing. There is a percentage of youths that wear only black. If I happen to be out crossing the street after dark, wearing dark clothes, I turn on the flashlight function of my cell phone when crossing the street, so at least sober drivers can be made aware of my presence.
Sure there are always opportunities for improvement in road safety design that should be carried out.
It is a tragedy for such a young person, their family, loved ones, friends etc to suffer like this. Perhaps these events can be reduced by both drivers and pedestrians being more aware and driving/walking defensively.
Was Braun sober?
I agree with a lot of what you’re saying. The traffic collision investigation will accurately determine what transpired, but that takes a lot of time. Most of these cases, the pedestrian’s actions have a role in the collision. Where I will quibble with you is your assessment of due process. The driver was “arrested” for allegedly committing this offense. What do you suspect that arrest was based on? Because in order to make a lawful arrest of someone, there must be probable cause.
We do know some facts about this case. The driver arrested was driving on a suspended license. That is a crime under the vehicle code and you can be arrested for it. There’s one charge there. Secondly, a lot can go into an officer’s decision to arrest someone for DUI including Standardized Field Sobriety Tests, chemical tests, visual observations, and the person’s admission to driving after consuming alcohol. It’s unclear if she was convicted of DUI, but if her license is suspended because of the previous DUI, it would be fair to assume she was convicted of a prior offense (Due Process, by the way). Courts admonish offenders that if they cause an accident while under the influence and kill someone, that individual can be charged with murder. If she was previously convicted, my best guess is she received this admonishment. Putting all of this together, with witness statements, driver statements, and physical evidence, there was likely enough probable cause to make the arrest. Now does that mean she will be convicted of said crimes? No, because she is afforded due process and will ultimately be judged in the court by a jury of her peers.
So again, the investigation has to take place. It’s tragic for the family and everyone involved, including the driver; however, the argument that this person is wrongfully accused and due process is not afforded to her is incorrect.
“Decency” to stay?? You’ve got to be kidding me. She was intoxicated driving on a suspended license. You’re an idiot!
I think this is a very reasonable take here… No road safety improvements are going to prevent reckless behavior.
I’ll just come out a say it… The group of kids were most likely drinking at house party and left to go get food because that’s what you do when you’re a drunk teenager at 12:45am. They made a reckless decision to cross a multi-lane highway in the dark and there was a tragic consequence.
Sorry, I’m sure all these white-picket-fence Manhattan Beach parents would say “oh no, my kid doesn’t drink at parties, he’s an angel”, etc… Wake up people.
All of this is so tragic, but instead of talking about “road improvements”, Let’s talk about educating our kids to make better decisions.
Nothing good happens after midnight.
my heart to braun’s family and friends, and schoolmates. there are no words. may his joyful, young memory be for a blessing. shalom, shalom. bev morse
Firstly –and most importantly– my heart goes out to this precious family in their loss… as well as to all Braun’s friends and those who were touched by his vibrant life!
Secondarily: I believe that the following paragraph be looked over, edited for clarity and resubmitted. It’s confusing … frustratingly so!—- “According to sources at Mira Costa High School, where the boys who were with Braun are students, they were at a nearby party in East Manhattan Beach and left to find something to eat. Two of the boys had crossed, and another was at the median and had just turned to urge his friend to hurry when the car struck him. The boy called 911 and waited with Levi as police and paramedics arrived.” Assuming “another” (who was at the median) was Braun Levi. If so, clarify by including his name. Also, “the boy called 911” … WHAT “boy” called 911? Bottom line: All the editing in world doesn’t erase or even ease this tragedy, but I did find myself wondering what else might have been sloppily reported.
PS– Please don’t misunderstand — I don’t think that the “other boys” need to be identified … in fact, I don’t think that would be wise or in their best interests. Just clean up the reporting for clarity’s sake. Thank you.
Haven’t people learned yet…… not to drink and drive?……..
Also, Is this part of the D.E.I…… in California?
Let’s see, now how many (women) were responsible for those nasty fires??? Oh Heavens No!!! We can’t blame those WOMEN. ( most kind hearted …..Liberals….. are afraid to even say …. MAYBE……Stupid!