A 22-year-old driver of a BMW that struck and killed four Pepperdine University students in Malibu has been arrested in a murder investigation in connection with the crash and is being held on $8 million bail, authorities said Wednesday.
The man was due in court Wednesday, a day after he was arrested, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement. The man had previously been arrested after the Oct. 17 crash but was released a day later while investigators gathered evidence, the statement said.
The college students were walking along the scenic Pacific Coast Highway at 8:30 p.m. in Malibu, only a few miles from the Christian university, when the driver lost control and sideswiped at least three parked vehicles before crashing into them and hitting two other people, according to authorities. The four women were pronounced dead and the two others were taken to a hospital with injuries.
“The Sheriff’s Department is relentlessly working to ensure we get justice for the victims’ families,” the statement said.
The sheriff’s department does not decide if criminal charges are filed, but refers cases it is investigating to the district attorney’s office for a decision. The district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to questions about the man and it was not immediately known if he had an attorney. The department said it had no further information to release.
Pepperdine identified those killed as Niamh Rolston, Peyton Stewart, Asha Weir and Deslyn Williams, all seniors at the school’s Seaver College of Liberal Arts.
Weir was from Philadelphia and studying English, while Rolston, from Los Angeles, and Stewart, from New York, were both studying business, according to CBS Los Angeles. Williams was from an Atlanta suburb and looking into becoming a veterinarian.
Provost Jay Brewster at a prayer service last week at the university called them “bright lights with promise and aspirations.”
