Turning the Tables in Hit-Run Crash

Seven months ago, Earvin Bryant’s cousin was killed in a hit-and-run accident near his South-Central Los Angeles home. The driver got away, leaving nothing but a few useless clues and, for the family, too many unanswered questions.

Early Thursday, Bryant, a security officer for Bel-Air Patrol in Westwood, was able to turn the tables on another hit-and-run driver.

While on late-night shift patrol in the parking lot of a Westwood apartment building, he saw a late-model Acura Legend that he believed was involved in the hit-and-run death of a pedestrian that had been reported hours earlier four blocks away. He called police.

Those decisive actions, which Bryant said he performed with his dead cousin in mind, led to the arrest of 21-year-old Benjamin Smallwood, a UCLA student majoring in English, who hours earlier allegedly struck down 74-year-old Muhammad Rezvani.

Rezvani, a Westlake Village man who family members said was attending a friend’s funeral reception just before the crash, was taken to UCLA Medical Center, where he died of what authorities described as massive trauma.

Smallwood, who police said had been drinking before the incident, was being held on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence, said Los Angeles police spokesman Mike Partain. Bail was set at $50,000. If convicted, Smallwood faces a maximum of 10 years in state prison.

For Bryant, 36, the arrest brought a sense of closure--if not for his own family, then possibly for the relatives of Rezvani, a retiree who moved from Santa Monica to Westlake Village eight months ago and who is survived by his wife and three children.

“I know that at least now maybe this man’s family can rest assured knowing that the driver was caught,” he said. “That’s something my family has never gotten to experience. This won’t bring Mr. Rezvani back, but maybe it might give his family a little peace. I hope so.”

Bryant had reported for work around midnight Wednesday when he learned about the crash and the fact that police were on the lookout for what witnesses had described as a late model, teal green Honda that had sustained a significant amount of body damage and a smashed windshield.

Three hours earlier, Rezvani, walking alone, had reportedly crossed Beverly Glen Boulevard on Ashton Avenue when he was struck by a fast-moving car as it traveled south, police said.

Witnesses said the impact had left behind the car’s left-side mirror and shattered windshield glass and that the vehicle had sustained major damage to its front left side.

About 2 a.m., Bryant was patrolling a ground-level parking structure next to a Westwood apartment complex when he saw what he thought might be the suspect’s car.

“It wasn’t a Honda--it was actually an Acura Legend--but it was metallic green and it had damage in all the right places--damage that looked pretty fresh,” he said.

Bryant called his supervisor, who came to the scene to help assess the vehicle and later gave him the go-ahead to call the police.

The security guard waited outside as detectives arrived. Moments later, they returned with the suspect, a man who Bryant had seen at least once before.

“It was weird, but I knew who he was,” he said. “I had seen him around with his wife or girlfriend. He lived four blocks from the scene of the crash. And it made me think about the driver who killed my cousin--could he had lived that close?”

Los Angeles police are asking that anyone with information on the crash contact West Traffic District detectives at (310) 202-4545.