TRAGEDY: Another teenager is killed on Sepulveda Boulevard

by Mark McDermott and Liz Mullen 

Braun Levi, an 18-year-old Loyola High School tennis star, was tragically killed by a suspected drunk driver while crossing Sepulveda Boulevard shortly after midnight Sunday. 

The accident occurred in the early hours of May 4 after Braun and three of his friends left a nearby gathering and went to find some food. At 12:46 a.m., the Manhattan Beach Police Department responded to a report of a collision on the 100 block of South Sepulveda. Officers arrived to find Levi laying on the street next to an SUV with a dented hood and broken windshield. He was transported to a local hospital but died from his injuries shortly thereafter. 

Police arrested Jenia Belt, a 33-year-old Los Angeles resident. MBPD’s initial press release indicated Bell was charged with drunk driving and murder. As of Wednesday, she remains in the MBPD jail, and the agency responsible for prosecution, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office, has yet to file charges. 

“The case remains under review,” a District Attorney spokesperson said Wednesday. 

The LA Times reported Monday that Belt was driving with a suspended license due to a previous DUI charge. 

According to sources at Mira Costa High School, where the boys who were with Braun are students, they were at a nearby party in East Manhattan Beach and left to find something to eat. Two of the boys had crossed, and another was at the median and had just turned to urge his friend to hurry when the car struck him. The boy called 911 and waited with Levi as police and paramedics arrived. The accident took place just two blocks from where 18-year-old MCHS student Ford Savela lost his life in January, struck by a drunk driver. The student who called 911 was also a friend of Savela. He and the other boys are receiving grief counseling at MCHS. 

Levi and his family were from Pacific Palisades but had relocated to Hermosa Beach after losing their home to the wildfires in January. Levi was ranked 50th nationally as a tennis player and was committed to the University of Virginia next fall. Just days before the acciden t, he and his doubles partner had won their fourth consecutive Mission League championship. He was a four year varsity player and team captain. 

But beyond his athletic feats, Levi was known as an exuberant, kind-hearted young man who was the life of every room he entered.

“Braun was a shining presence in our Loyola family, bringing light, joy, and inspiration to everyone he touched,” wrote Loyola Principal Jamal Adams in an email sent to the school community on Sunday. 

“Braun Levi is a legend for good reason,” Georgia Bryan, a close family friend,  wrote on Instagram. “Whether you were lucky enough to cross paths with him for an hour or a lifetime, he left an impression. It was impossible to be sad or bored whenever Braun was around, and his gift for lifting those around him was truly singular. My honorary little brother and favorite instigator, I know you’re throwing the wildest party wherever you are. Live like Braun.” 

His doubles partner Cooper Schwartz, who’d been friends with Levi since they competed against each other at age 8, also posted a tribute on Instagram. 

“You’re forever who we toast to, who we laugh about when we try to explain anything you’ve ever done, and who we cry about knowing we can’t just give you a hug,” he wrote. “18 years or 125, no one had a better life than you did Braunny. The tears are joyful because of that.”

“I will spend the rest of my life striving to live with the same heart, strength, and kindness that you’ve shown these past 19 years,” wrote his sister, Adele, on Instagram. “You are deeply loved, and words can’t begin to express how much you’ll be missed.”

The Manhattan Beach City Council held a moment of silence in honor of Levi on Tuesday night. It was the third loss of life on Sepulveda since December, when another pedestrian was struck and killed between 8th and 9th Streets. Mayor Amy Howorth addressed the accident directly, speaking to those in council chambers. 

“We’ve received many, many, many valid concerns about safety on Sepulveda Boulevard…particularly that stretch south of Manhattan Beach Boulevard, which tragically has been the site of multiple fatal accidents in recent years, and just three of traffic fatalities involving pedestrians since December,” Howorth said. “So obviously, we take this very seriously, as does the whole city and staff and our traffic engineer. We’re committed to improving safety for everybody.” 

Sepulveda is controlled by Caltrans, Howorth acknowledged, but said the City is engaged with the agency to make changes. 

“You need to know that our traffic engineer has been aware and has been urgently reaching out to Caltrans for a while now,” she said. “And we are now working with our state senator, Ben Allen, as of today, to get Caltrans to listen to us. Because they must understand the urgency, and they need to act with urgency and implement robust safety protocols. And we at the city are going to leverage every available resource to continue to advocate for those measures that protect our residents. Our police department’s traffic bureau and patrol personnel will be conducting high visibility traffic enforcement focusing on primary collision factors such as speed along that stretch of road, and we’ll work with our regional partners on either side of us to conduct DUI saturation patrols in Manhattan Beach…It is incumbent upon us to do more than we can so this never has to happen again.” 

Resident Nazly Westernoff urged the council not to wait for Caltrans to take action. 

“It feels a little bit unfair to us as citizens to wait for Caltrans,” she said. “I spent so much time today reading about Caltrans…It is a handcuff and not one that we should suffer through. So I am urging, I am asking, for us as a city to do better than Caltrans.” 

Resident Tanya Monihan said her son was with Braun Levi the night the accident occurred. She was at Gelson’s when the accident occurred that caused a pedestrian death in December. 

“Three lives taken along the same stretch of Sepulveda Boulevard,” she said. “This is not a tragic coincidence. It is clear signal that the current conditions on this major thoroughfare are unsafe and unacceptable. We cannot afford to wait for another tragedy to take action. Whether it’s Caltrans or the city’s responsibility, really, we just need to work together. I just don’t want this to get blocked by, ‘Whose responsibility is this?’  I am very willing, and I know many people….Everybody wants to help out with this and make our city safer. So I implore you to take immediate action to make these roads safer.” 

Monihan said possibilities include new speed limits, flashing lights, costlier tickets, more enforcement, DUI and driver’s education programs, and installing barriers or even an overpass, 

“We don’t want Manhattan Beach to be remembered for preventable deaths, especially of our young,” she said. “We want this community to act safely and compassionately when it’s clear that lives are at risk.” 

Another local mother, who did not identify herself by name, told the council that her own 17-year-old child had prom Saturday night, as did Redondo Union and Chadwick School. 

“Our children were out late,” she said. “And we wake up to a Nixle [message] that a child had died. There is never a circumstance that’s going to be okay. What I love about our community, what I appreciated from the start, is that we are very tight knit, and so at 6 a.m. I started getting texts and messages. I’m a physician in this community, and I have very close friends who all have teenagers…We cannot let this happen again. Two children in three months is completely unacceptable. Our children are 17 and 18. They need their independence. These are pedestrians. They weren’t doing anything wrong. Killed by drunk drivers. So I really feel like it’s a civic responsibility that we do something to take drunk drivers off the roads. This is Manhattan Beach. We can do whatever we need to do to keep our children safe. And we need to do more.” ER