Too Stunned to Move
For at least five hours following the tragedy at 9:45 p.m., witnesses said, formerly jubilant partygoers, stunned, steadily poured into Washington Boulevard and stayed there. Washington, one of the city’s busiest big streets, was closed off thereafter from McLaughlin to Inglewood Boulevard. On a chilled night, partyguests huddled sheerly for emotional sustenance. Shivering from the shock of the violent, instant, death of a man who had just been entertaining them, they collected in clusters. Along the curb they gathered, or nearer the sidewalk. Wherever there was both space and relative privacy. By midnight, representatives from the noted Maple Counseling Center arrived to provide professional aid. City Councilman Alan Corlin lives nearby. Describing the anguished panorama of pain, he said it looked as if the Speakeasy at the Culver Events Center, the building housing the party, periodically was belching out the guests, a half-dozen at a time. About sixty children and adults, engulfed by confusion, unimaginable sadness and a kind of paralysis, alternately sat, stood, milled about. Mr. Corlin said he counted at least twenty Culver City police officers smoothly taking charge of the death scene.
Postscript
Police sources said that Mr. Murchison, treated at a hospital for injuries suffered in the accident, was booked at the Police Dept. for gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated. He was reported to be out on bail, which was set at $100,000. Police said that initially the fatal accident looked like a case of hit-and-run. Witnesses told them, however, that Mr. Murchison parked his car several blocks away and returned to the crowded scene on foot, bleeding. Police arrested him after witnesses identified him. Regarding the suspicion of intoxication, a blood sample was taken of Mr. Murchison. Investigators expect the results later this week.
