Santa Monica police arrested a 62-year-old man Wednesday, Nov. 7 for threatening to kill two employees at Hi De Ho Comics after he became violent in the store, injuring the manager.
At 11:50 a.m. officers of the Santa Monica Police Department went to the store located at 1431 Lincoln Boulevard after they had received a report of a man throwing things at two victims.
The officers were also informed that the suspect was present at the location in violation of a restraining order.
By the time the officers arrived at the scene the suspect had fled, but was detained by other officers in the 1300 block of Santa Monica Boulevard.
The officers spoke with one of the two victims at Hi De Ho Comics who told the officers the suspect was known to him and had entered the store and approached the store manager.
The suspect then began to shout at the manager saying he was owed money.
The suspect then walked around the counter, opened up the cash register, and grabbed a handful of $20 bills.
The victim then took the $20 bills from the suspect and put them back into the cash register. The suspect became enraged at that and threw some display items from the counter onto the floor before telling them him he was going to kill both of them.
The suspect then threw several items at the victims causing a small laceration to the hand of the manager.
The victims subsequently identified the suspect and the officers arrested him under a private person’s arrest.
This Santa Monica resident was booked and charged with criminal threats, battery upon a person, and violation of a court order.
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.
