On Friday, Feb. 17, at 6:16 p.m. officers of the Santa Monica police Department were in the area of 710 Broadway when they were flagged down by some citizens who told them that a man was screaming frenetically at a group of pedestrians, and that this man had also just assaulted someone.
The officers sprang into action and immediately detained the suspect. The officers noticed that this man was intoxicated. The officers then located the victim who told them that he had just left the grocery store with his sisters when the suspect had approached them riding a bicycle.
The suspect had stopped and had began yelling at them for no reason at all, and had followed that up by dismounting his bicycle and punching the victim in the face with a closed fist (huh?).
The suspect had continued attacking the victim, but the victim had been able to protect himself until other citizens came to his aid. The victim did not desire any medical assistance but was rather keen to enact his right to a Private Person’s Arrest, so the officers duly obliged.
This man was taken off to jail where he was charged with public intoxication, assault, and battery.
The bail for this 28-year-old homeless man 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.
