During the early morning hours of Wednesday, Nov. 18, officers of the Santa Monica Police department were on patrol in the 2900 block of Main Street when security personnel from an area discotheque flagged them down after an alleged assault had occurred on the premises.
The officers pulled over, exited their vehicle, and began to interview witnesses. The officers learned that a woman wearing dark clothing and a white baseball cap had hit a man over the head with a bottle while they were both inside the bar.
The officers found this woman at the location and detained her while they investigated further.
After interviewing several more witnesses, including staff members and patrons, and viewing the closed circuit video recordings of the incident the officers deduced that this woman had, at about 1:22 a.m. that day, had been dancing with another female when the victim (a man) had approached her on the dance floor.
The officers gleaned from the video recordings that the suspect and the victim had become embroiled in an animated discussion and that the victim had attempted to take a bottle of alcoholic beverage from the suspect.
The victim had then walked away.
The officers watched more of the recording and a few minutes after the initial encounter had taken place saw that the suspect had approached the victim from behind and suddenly struck the victim on the side of his head with the bottle.
This act caused the bottle to shatter and the contents to spill onto the floor.
Witnesses stated that out of view of the camera the victim had then grabbed the suspect and dragged her to the front door before exiting the building and vanishing.
The victim has yet to be located and identified. Based on the statements and video recordings this 25-year-old resident of Venice was arrested and charged with assault with a deadly weapon. Bail was set at $30,000.
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.
