Santa Monica police arrested a homeless man on Tuesday, Oct. 20, for assaulting another homeless man who was trying to sleep on an embankment next to the 10 Freeway.
At 2:26 am patrol officers of the Santa Monica Police Department received a radio call informing then that a battery victim had called dispatch from the area of the 2600 block of Pico Blvd.
The officers were informed that the victim had stated that he had been “camping” on the embankment of the 2400 block of the Interstate 10 Freeway (not a typical camping location many would say) when another man had attacked him for no apparent reason.
He said that he had been sleeping when the assailant had straddled him and had struck him several times in the right side of his head with a closed fist.
He added that the suspect had then grabbed him around the neck and choked him before pulling out a kitchen knife, holding it to the victim’s throat and threatening to kill him before running away in an unknown direction.
When the officers met with the victim they noticed that he had sustained some swelling as well as a cut above his right eye.
Later that day, at 10:40 am, officers were in the area of Virginia Avenue Park when they recognized the suspect and arrested him for the attack on the fellow homeless man earlier that day.
This man was taken to jail and charged with assault with a deadly weapon and criminal threats. 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.
