A Sense Of Relief.
On Friday, April 13, at 9:35 p.m. officers of the Santa Monica Police Department went to the 1400 block of Princeton Avenue in order to investigate a report of an assault with a deadly weapon. When they arrived at the scene they saw the victim who was being treated by Santa Monica Fire Department Paramedics for various bodily injuries.
The victim told the officers that he had been inside his parked van attempting to sleep when he heard someone standing at the rear of the vehicle. The victim told officers that he heard a sound that he recognized, namely the sound of a man urinating against his van. The victim then said that he opened the rear doors to confront the urinating man, and as he did so one of the doors hit the urinating man on the head.
In response, the loitering suspect and two of his friends allegedly began yelling at the victim, telling him that he was going to suffer.
The victim attempted to secure himself in the safety of his van but the first suspect began hitting him. The victim then used a fire extinguisher and began to spray the assailants in order to ward them off, but once the fire extinguisher was empty the men all charged at the victim and began to punch and kick him repeatedly in the upper body and head.
These three men then jumped into a vehicle and drove off, just as the police were arriving at the scene of the fracas.
Other officers who were on patrol in the area saw the suspects fleeing and stopped them in the 1700 block of 17th Street. These men were then identified by a witness and arrested for the assault on the man in the van.
The victim was treated at the scene by the paramedics but refused further treatment.
Two men, one aged 26, and the other aged 22 years of age were arrested and charged with assault with a deadly weapon and violation of probation. A third man, aged 19, was charged with assault with a deadly weapon.
They were all Los Angeles residents, and each one received bail in the amount of $30,000.
