A female jogger on an early morning run had the fright of her life on Saturday, June 20, after an 18-year-old man tackled her to the ground for no apparent reason.
Officers of the Santa Monica Police Department responded to the 2700 block of Santa Monica Beach at 7:15 am on this day in order to investigate a report of a possible assault.
Upon arrival the officers noticed that the suspect was being helped to stand upright by a friend (also the witness and reporting party).
The officers also noticed that the suspect was staggering around in the sand as he and his friend attempted to negotiate a trajectory towards the boardwalk.
The officers asked the suspect to sit down.
As they were assisting the suspect in achieving a seated position the suspect the suspect had tensed up and clenched his fists in an attempt to resist.
His resistance proved ineffective and the officers overpowered the suspect with ease.
The officers then spoke with the friend who told the officers that the suspect was drunk.
The officers had assumed this to be the state of the suspect prior to being informed by the friend.
The friend told the officers that the suspect had been drinking alcohol since 2 am that day and they had decided to take a walk along the shoreline.
He added that the suspect had become aggressive and had said that he wanted to fight someone.
He continued to say that shortly afterwards a woman had jogged by them on the sand and that the suspect had ran towards the woman, tackled her to the ground and began yelling incoherent statements.
He said that he had caught up with the suspect and pulled him off the victim and had told the victim to run away for her own safety.
The officers arrested this 18-year-old resident of North Hills and he was later charged with public intoxication and battery. Bail was set at $20,000.
Editor’s Note: These reports are part of a regular police coverage series entitled “Alert Police Blotter” (APB), which injects some minor editorial into certain police activities in Santa Monica. Not all of The Mirror’s coverage of incidents involving police are portrayed in this manner. More serious crimes and police-related activities are regularly reported without editorial in the pages of the Santa Monica Mirror and its website, smmirror.com.
