Crime & Safety
Video Emerges of Hollywood Car Crash That Killed Star Journalist Michael Hastings
The images appear to show a Mercedes-Benz speeding by the camera, and then a large fireball.
Los Angeles journalist Michael Krikorian earlier this week posted a video of the fiery car crash that killed star journalist Michael Hastings on the edge of Hollywood in June.
The video appears to show Hasting's Mercedes-Benz speeding by the camera, and then a large fireball.
Hastings, 33, who was working for BuzzFeed in Los Angeles, was driving south on Highland Avenue when he apparently lost control of the compact car near Melrose Avenue and crashed into palm trees in the median about 4:20 a.m. on June 18. A witness told the photographer the car was going about 100 mph shortly before the crash.In a detailed blog post, Krikorian explained how he came to posses the video, which he obtained because his girlfriend owns the restaurant where the surveillance camera captured the crash.
Hastings, who covered the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, was probably best known for a 2010 profile of Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who mocked his civilian commander. Its publication in Rolling Stone under the headline "The Runaway General'' led President Barack Obama to recall McChrystal to Washington and replace him with Gen. David Petraeus. The article won Hastings the prestigious 2010 Polk award for magazine reporting and served as the basis for his first book, "The Operators: The Wild and Terrifying Inside Story of America's War in Afghanistan.''
He later published the book "I Lost My Love in Baghdad: A Modern War Story,'' about his fiance, who was killed in a Baghdad car bombing in 2007. He later married Elise Jordan, a writer, in May 2011.
Hastings, a native of Burlington, Vt., and educated at New York University, was also known for interviewing Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. At the time of his death, he was reportedly working on a story about Jill Kelley, a Florida socialite who became embroiled in the scandal that erupted around Petraeus, who was serving as director of the CIA until he resigned Nov. 9, 2012, under pressure over an extramarital affair with Paula Broadwell, his biographer.
Ed Winter, assistant chief Los Angeles County coroner, confirmed that it was Hastings who died in the fiery wreck, though he did not say what method was used to confirm it was him.
Los Angeles police have said no foul play was suspected in the wreck, which remains under investigation.
The car's engine reportedly ended up about 200 feet away from the impact site.
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City News Service contributed to this report.
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