[UPDATE JULY 10]: Congregation Kol Ami executive director Sadie Rose-Stern expressed “sadness for the family” of the deceased, Joshua Michael Slot, who stole a Tesla on July 4 and crashed into Kol Ami.
The car split into two after a collision with a traffic light post. The back half of the vehicle flew into the synagogue. Multiple vehicles were involved with the crash.
A Park Labrea News/Beverly Press story reported Slot’s death this morning. The Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office was the newspaper’s source.
[EXCLUSIVE PHOTOS: Tesla S crashes in West Hollywood]
In the early morning hours of July 4, a stolen Tesla reportedly driving some 100 mph crashed into a telephone pole and split in half, just north of Santa Monica Boulevard, between Fountain and Lexington avenues, on La Brea Avenue in West Hollywood. One half of the car landed on top of a white car, according to KTLA.com, while the rear half of the car crashed into the entrance of Congregation Kol Ami, wedging into the entryway, blasing through a metal gate and destroying a door and damaging the adjacent glass. No one at the synagogue was hurt.
“It's a horrific crash. It careenoff off the traffic post and then swiped into the building” the synagogue's executive director Sadie Rose-Stern told The Journal on July 4.
The driver, at first thought dead, was taken to a hospital. Several others were injured, according to KTLA.
