An alert Santa Monica motorist helped in the arrest of a 29-year-old Playa del Rey man who was assaulting his wife in their car on Friday, July 19.
At 3:05 pm officers of the Santa Monica Police Department received a radio call alerting them to a domestic violence incident happening in the area of 25th Street and Wilshire Boulevard.
The dispatch personnel informed the officers that a man had been assaulting a woman in a black Lexus, but had fled the vehicle and was in the aforementioned area.
The officers raced to the scene and spoke with the reporting party, or “RP,” who told them that he had seen a man hitting a woman in the vehicle that had been stopped next to him at a red light.
Assuming that the female was in need of assistance, this gentleman got out of his own vehicle and approached the suspect, who upon seeing him, jumped out of the Lexus and fled on foot eastbound along Wilshire Boulevard.
This suspect was later apprehended and detained by other responding officers and the victim (who was the driver of the black Lexus, as well as the wife of the suspect) identified him as her husband as well as the man who had been hitting her.
This Playa del Rey resident was arrested and charged with spousal battery.
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.
