A man ordering a movie from a video rental machine inside the Albertson’s store at 2627 Lincoln Boulevard in Santa Monica was wrestled to the ground by a 52-year-old homeless man on Sept. 5 for no apparent reason.
At 8:50 p.m. a Santa Monica Police Department patrol officer went to the store after receiving a radio report about an assault and battery that had just occurred.
When this officer arrived he made contact with the male victim who told the officer a homeless man inside the Albertson’s store located at 2627 Lincoln Boulevard had just assaulted him.
As the victim was telling the officer what had happened, the victim pointed at a man standing in the parking lot and yelled, “that’s him!”
The officer immediately leapt into action and detained “him.”
The detained man was rambling in an incoherent fashion interspersed with the words, “go get him.”
The officer secured this suspect in the back of his patrol car and continued the conversation with the victim, who told him that he had been standing in front of a video rental machine located just outside the Albertson’s store when the suspect had approached him and stood just inches away from his left side.
The victim had then enquired as to why the suspect was doing this odd act to which the suspect replied, “hit me.”
The victim responded by stating that he would prefer not to accommodate this request, at which time the suspect began to push the victim in the chest several times.
This pushing caused both parties to fall to the ground and they began to roll around and fight each other on the ground.
Based upon the injuries to the victim’s ankle and elbow he decided to arrest this 52-year-old homeless man who was then charged with elder abuse. Bail 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.
