:grr:
<snip>
Two 19-year-old men, allegedly inspired by the "Bumfights" video, roamed the streets of downtown Los Angeles early Tuesday hitting sleeping homeless people with aluminum baseball bats, leaving an elderly man in critical condition with severe head wounds, police said.
The suspects, William Orantes and Justin Brumfield, later told officers they had just watched a controversial DVD in which homeless people are videotaped fighting each other and wanted to do some "bum bashing" of their own, Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton said.
"This was a vicious, cowardly crime that even veteran officers such as myself find hard to believe," Bratton said during a skid row news conference attended by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and homeless advocates. "This happened to one of our most helpless communities because they're not only homeless but often mentally ill. These dehumanizing crimes will not be tolerated."
Villaraigosa also expressed outrage.
"Why anyone would want to attack anyone who's sleeping in the street is inconceivable to me," he said.
Authorities know of two homeless people who were beaten but suspect there were other victims who have not come forward.
The first victim, Gerald McHenry, 38, was attacked at 2 a.m. while sleeping on a sidewalk near 9th and Wall streets. His attacker fled in a car before police arrived.
About 90 minutes later, a security guard saw two men beating a homeless man on the head with bats near 3rd and Flower streets, authorities said. The guard followed the suspects, who had gotten into their car, and Los Angeles Police Department officers soon caught up with them.
Officers recovered two aluminum bats and a replica firearm in the car. Orantes and Brumfield, both of Inglewood, were arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/state/la-me-bumfight17aug17,1,104883.story?coll=la-news-state
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
