1 dead, 1 hospitalized after car slams into South LA church

A violent crash left one person dead and one hospitalized in South Los Angeles early Saturday morning. 

It happened a little after 12:15 a.m. in the 1000 block of Manchester Avenue, when the driver behind the wheel of an SUV heading westbound through the intersection with Central Avenue when it flew off the road and slammed into Challenge of Faith Church. 

"They were definitely speeding, they didn't even put on the breaks," said Deacon Alex Wynn "Knocked down the light pole, came into the building and you could see an imprint of his tire on the side of the building."

The force of the impact was so strong that the driver, a man in his early 40s, was ejected from the car and pronounced dead at the scene. A passenger was rushed to a hospital in unknown condition. 

Investigators yellow-tagged the church after deeming that it was not structurally sound after the crash caused a portion of a wall to crumble.

"There will not be any service tomorrow and for the near future until we get this all taken care of," Wynn said. 

Locals say that this isn't the first time that something like this has happened in the area, and some church leaders say that a dip in the road could be to blame for this and several other horrific crashes into their church over the years. 

"This is what happens at night," said Wynn. "Drinking or driving or racing, they hit that dip and they go airborne and then they are out of control."

He says that they've reached out to the city multiple times for help, but thus far their requests have gone unanswered. 

"We just want someone to do something before some more people get killed," Wynn said. 

Los Angeles City Councilman Curren Price's District 9 oversees the area. KCAL News has reached out to request comment from his office but has not yet heard back.