A 37-year-old resident from Murrieta in Riverside County was arrested on Thursday, Feb. 13 after assaulting an 82-year-old street performer on the Third Street Promenade.
At 10:10 pm on this day, a citizen informed an officer of the Santa Monica Police Department that there had just been an assault in the area of Third Street Promenade and Arizona Avenue.
The officer hastened to the location and spotted the suspect.
The officer, along with other officers who had arrived, detained this suspect and began the investigation.
The victim was an elderly street performer who plied his talent as a singer in order to receive donations for his efforts.
This performer told the officers that he was approaching the end of his last song of the day when a man approached him and asked to see his performance permit.
The street performer requested that this man cease from interrupting the performance and that he leave him alone.
The man, who was accompanied by a woman, allegedly initially began to walk away but suddenly turned around and grabbed the street performer, pushing him up against a wall and choking him.
The street performer attempted to claw the assailant as onlookers urged the man to let the street performer go.
The man eventually released his grip on the street performer and began to leave.
The street performer was taken to a local hospital where he was treated for swelling and bruising to his throat.
The officers, based on testimony, arrested this man and he was charged with elder abuse, criminal threats, and assault.
Bail was set at $50,000.
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.
