Malibu Driver Who Killed Students Charged With Murder

UPDATE Oct 25, 2023 4:42 PM CDT

The driver whose car struck four college students last week in Malibu, killing them, has been charged with murder. Fraser Michael Bohm faces four counts of gross vehicular manslaughter as well as four counts of murder, CBS News reports. He appeared in court on Wednesday, pleading not guilty. District Attorney George Gascón said the investigation found that Bohm "knew his actions were dangerous to human life and deliberately acted with conscious disregard for human life." He was arrested last week on suspicion of gross vehicular manslaughter, released on insufficient evidence, then rearrested Tuesday. Court records show his bail was set at $8 million, per Fox News.

Oct 19, 2023 12:30 AM CDT

Four Pepperdine University students standing on the side of the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, California, on Tuesday night were killed when a driver lost control of his BMW around 8:30pm and ran into them, police say. Seniors Niamh Rolston, Peyton Stewart, Asha Weir, and Deslyn Williams were pronounced dead at the scene, NBC News reports. Two others were taken to a hospital; their current conditions have not been made public, the AP reports. The driver, 22-year-old Fraser Michael Bohm of Malibu, was arrested on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence. Police say he was driving at a high rate of speed, lost control, sideswiped a few parked cars, and then crashed into a group of people who were walking.

A captain with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department says the PCH, or Highway 1, is "deadly" due to frequent reckless driving. "The leading cause of collisions on PCH by far is speed," she said. "It is a town—it is a college town." Pepperdine overlooks the coastal highway, which runs right through Malibu; it's not uncommon to see pedestrians crossing the highway to get to a business, or the beach, on the other side. "We've got this major highway running through the center of our city—it's a racetrack; it has been for years," the mayor said while calling for the California Highway Patrol to start patrols on the highway again, per the Los Angeles Times. "We need some help." (More Pacific Coast Highway stories.)