A 56-year-old Hermosa Beach man was attacked by a group of teens, beaten and struck with a cardboard pizza box as he walked near 11th Court and Beach Drive on Friday, Nov. 21, according to authorities, who used surveillance video of the assault to identify the suspects.
Hermosa Beach police have arrested two teens they describe as the “primary aggressors,” and identified all of the teens in the video, who are between 13 and 15, police announced on Wednesday, Nov. 26.
The video footage of the attack, which took place a few blocks from the Hermosa Beach Pier around 8 p.m., shows the man surrounded by teenagers, who then start kicking and hitting the man. A witness told Fox11 he heard the group gathering, talking about wanting to “get someone” and asking the man for pizza before they began to assault him.
At one point, the teens can be heard saying “he’s dead,” before they leave the area on e-bikes.
The victim was transported to a hospital, police said.
In a press release, police said the attack was not coordinated on the part of the teens and that the man had “walked past his intended destination to initiate contact” with them.
The item the teens were seen striking the man with was a cardboard pizza box, police confirmed.
“HBPD officers also spoke with one of the juvenile’s parents, who contacted HBPD after seeing their child on videos of the assault that are circulating on social media,” the police department said in a statement.
By Wednesday, all five of the teens had been identified and two had been arrested, booked into the Hermosa Beach Police Department Jail and were awaiting transport to Juvenile Hall, police said.
“We are in communication with the parents of the remaining juveniles and are preparing a thorough case we will present to the prosecutors office. We know the videos circulating are disturbing,” a statement from the department read.
Another Hermosa Beach resident reported a similar attack on Oct. 28. Hart Cardozo, 66, told Fox11 that he was in his car near the pier when he was surrounded by a group of teens on e-bikes, who slashed his tires and yelled at him. When he got out of his car, one teen hit him in the head with an object, resulting in Cardozo needing 14 staples in his head. Cardozo told Fox11 he believes it was the same group of teens and he decided to speak out publicly after hearing about the Nov. 21 assault.
“I had to go to the ER. I have 14 staples in my head. I was in a lot of pain. I was disoriented. It seemed surreal. You don’t plan at Hermosa Beach to have something like that happen. I mean, it was traumatic for me,” Cardozo told the television station.
He would like to see the attackers arrested, he said in an interview with the station.
Hermosa Beach police confirmed the department is also investigating the Oct. 28 assault, but there is no evidence at this time that it is connected to the Nov. 21 assault, Ryan Walker, public information officer for the city of Hermosa Beach, said.
A friend of Cardozo’s told the Southern California News Group she and other residents are very concerned about the recent assaults, which both happened to older adults.
“My boyfriend and I are older also and we walk around Hermosa and Redondo all the time. When it happened to my friend like that, it was eye opening,” the concerned resident, 71, said.
She is on high-alert walking around the area these days after the two recent assaults.
“People seem to be taking it as this is kids, mischief. No,” she said. “That’s not okay and that’s not normal teenager mischief. They did the same thing, they circled him and they circled my friend.”
South Bay residents took to social media with frustrations regarding the response to the assault, with many commenting calls for all involved teens to be held accountable and others criticizing the police statement that indicated the victim had approached the teens.
Authorities ask anyone with additional information regarding this assault to contact the Hermosa Beach Police Department at 310-318-0360.