A Long Beach family was devastated after two vehicles — one that police said was driven by a drunken driver — plowed into their Long Beach home that also operates as an art gallery, nearly striking their 13-year-old son and destroying some art pieces early Saturday morning, Feb. 24.
Somehow, the owner of The Open Gallery, Artos Saucedo, and his wife Liz Garibaldi, and son who live at the site at 1738 E. 7th St. escaped physical injury, said Officer Eric Stachura, a spokesman for the Long Beach Police Department.
At around 12:30 a.m on Saturday, Garibaldi was in her bedroom working on her computer when she heard screeching along the main street.
“That’s not an usual sound for this area,” she said standing outside the now red-tagged building on Sunday. “But the screeches sounded too close.”
Next thing she knew, two vehicles tore through the front wall of their gallery with one vehicle partially crashing into her bedroom/living room, with the other vehicle coming to an abrupt stop inside her son’s bedroom, pushing his bed into the corner of the wall, Garibaldi said.
“I called out his name and it took 20 seconds for him to respond that he was okay but it felt like forever,” she said. “For a split second I thought I was a mother who had lost her child.”
The boy was unharmed, but the wreckage prevented either parent from coming to his aid and he had to climb out over the car on his own, his father, Saucedo, said.
“That’s not something a kid should have to go through,” Saucedo said
The driver and passenger of one car were treated for minor injuries, while the driver who police said caused the calamity was hospitalized. That man, identified by police as a 32-year-old Long Beach resident, was later booked on suspicion of felony driving under the influence.
“The preliminary investigation indicates that a sedan traveling westbound on 7th Street rear-ended an SUV, causing both vehicles to collide with a building,” Stachura wrote in an email.
A video filmed by freelance news videographer OC HAWK showed firefighters wheeling a man to an ambulance. He looked back at someone and said, “I’m sorry.”
Someone off-camera replied: “No, you’re not.” Others had harsher words in response to the man’s apology.
Saucedo and Garibaldi, both graphic designers, purchased the studio in 2019 — at first just a small building at the corner of 7th Street and Rose Avenue — and expanded the structure a few years later to accommodate moving their family into the building.
Their goal was to create a community space for local artists and beyond to contribute to, bridging Long Beach to communities across the globe, said Steven Martinez, a friend of the family and one of the curators at the studio.
“We were in the middle of a gallery called ‘Trust the Process’ when this happened, and half of the art pieces that were being stored here were destroyed,” Martinez said. “Thankfully, the artists have been very understanding and just want (the family) to focus on recovering.”
Some of their galleries, held quarterly, drew about 300 people, Martinez said.
The family had celebrated just a few weeks ago after completing a year-long renovation, but now they say the studio and their home is a complete loss.
“It looks like an explosion went off inside,” Garibaldi said.
Martinez said this will be a significant loss to a neighborhood lacking the space for highlighting local artists.
“This place brought the community together and it’s really a bummer that something could just take it out overnight.”
Saucedo and his wife said they are unsure of their next steps moving forward, or whether the art gallery will return.
“We’re still in shock,” Saucedo said. “Its been a few days and sometimes my wife and I will just stare at each other unsure of what to do.”
A GoFundMe was set up by a family friend to help the gallery and the family.
