Students and staff at Loyola High School in Los Angeles are in mourning Monday after a star tennis player just weeks from graduation was run down by a suspected drunk driver.
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Braun Levi, 18, was walking on Sepulveda Boulevard with a friend around 12:45 a.m. Sunday when he was struck and fatally injured.
The suspect, 33-year-old Jenia Belt, was arrested at the scene, according to Manhattan Beach police.
Belt was driving on a suspended license from a previous drunk driving arrest, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing public records.
Belt had previously been charged with DUI stemming from an incident on Nov. 25, 2023, and is not permitted to drive, according to Los Angeles County Superior Court records provided to The Times by the state Department of Motor Vehicles.
Belt was charged in the 2023 incident with driving with a blood alcohol content of 0.08 or higher and either driving with a blood alcohol content of 0.15 or refusing to take a chemical test, and hit and run with property damage, according to The Times.
Levi, who was found in the street by responding officers, was nationally ranked and was bound for the University of Virginia, according to published reports.
The young man's family had moved to Manhattan Beach after their Pacific Palisades home was destroyed in January, The Times reported.
Officers dispatched to the 100 block of South Sepulveda Boulevard located a victim in the street next to a vehicle, according to Officer Chasen Gaunt of the Manhattan Beach Police Department.
Paramedics rushed the boy to a hospital, where he died, Gaunt said.
"Levi ... was a team captain and four-year varsity starter for Loyola Tennis and cemented himself as one of the most accomplished student- athletes in program history, having just won a fourth consecutive league championship on April 29th," the school posted to social media.
A prayer vigil in memory of Levi was organized by the school on Sunday, according to media reports.
Anyone with information regarding the fatal accident was urged to contact the police department at 310-802-5098.
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