Dialysis Center Crash Victim Was Educator

A 74-year-old man killed when a car crashed through the front window of the Baldwin Hills Dialysis Center and struck a group of patients was identified Tuesday as W. Nelson Talbert, a retired teacher and guidance counselor.

Talbert, who had been undergoing dialysis three times a week for the last year and a half, was at the center Monday when a driver lost control and plowed into the center. Ten other patients were injured.

Police said Aaron Howard, 67, of Los Angeles had just pulled into a parking space at the center, where he and his wife, Juanita, both had appointments. It was about 11:30 a.m.

Howard “thought he was putting the transmission gear knob from drive to park,” said Los Angeles Police Det. Scott Sherman. “In the process, he put his foot on what he thought was the brake.”

The car accelerated over the curb, across the sidewalk and through a window into the dialysis center. It crossed a room where 12 patients sat elbow to elbow, each connected to a dialysis machine.

“I heard boom, boom, boom, like someone fell upstairs,” said Tasha Woodson, an employee at Mayfair Adult Day Health Care Center, which shares a wall with the dialysis center in a busy strip mall along La Brea Avenue.

Eleven patients ranging in age from 34 to 81 were hospitalized. Ten were later released. Talbert died at Kaiser West Los Angeles Medical Center.

Police said the district attorney’s office will decide whether to file criminal charges.

On Tuesday, friends and family remembered Talbert as a quiet man who throughout his life tried to motivate young adults to seek academic achievement.

Talbert founded and directed a scholarship foundation for Omega Psi Phi, a national African American fraternity. The foundation awards grants to high school graduates throughout their college careers, said Franklin Henderson, who met Talbert through Omega Psi Phi.

“I knew him 43 years; I never saw him get angry,” Henderson said. “He wasn’t an extremely vocal person, but when he had something to say, you listened.”

Chere Talbert of Baldwin Hills said the joke she shared with her husband of 43 years was that she was his second love; the fraternity that he worked so hard to support was his first.

At home Tuesday, she remembered Talbert, who still took her out on a “date” every weekend, as “a true gentleman in all respects. He was well-educated and poised. He was fun to be with and he loved to dance.”

As yet, she said, “I don’t feel he’s gone. His spirit is sitting right here with me.”