Posted on 04/02/2011 8:58:50 PM PDT by doug from upland
LOS ANGELES (CBS) — A Santa Cruz man remains in critical condition Friday evening, as well as a medically-induced coma, from a beating in a Dodger Stadium parking lot delivered by two men wearing Los Angeles Dodgers apparel following the team’s home opener yesterday.
Late Friday evening police held a press conference and released a composite sketch of two suspects in the case. One detective referred to the victim as “fighting for his life.”
The 41-year-old victim, identified by the Santa Cruz Sentinel as Bryan Stow, was leaving Dodger Stadium with friends, all wearing Giants apparel, around 8:25 p.m. Thursday when the two suspects started taunting them for being Giants fans, said Officer Rosario Herrera of the Los Angeles Police Department.
“As the victim and his friends attempted to walk away from the suspects, the victim was hit from behind and fell to the ground,” Herrera said. “The suspects then kicked the victim as he lay on the ground.”
One suspect was described as having “numerous” tattoos on his neck. A woman, with a child, may have also been with the two male suspects.
The victim’s friends tried to intervene but they too were hit by the suspects, Herrera said. The two men were last seen leaving parking Lot 2.
“He’s not doing too well,” brother-in-law David Collins told the Sentinel of the father of two who works as a paramedic.
“He’s still unconscious and they just decided to put him in a medically induced coma. They are hoping the brain swelling will go down, but it hasn’t and they are talking about removing one of his frontal lobes.”
Collins told the Santa Cruz Sentinel he hopes someone will come forward who saw the attack or captured it on a camera phone.
Stow suffered a head injury and was hospitalized in critical condition, according to Herrera and Collins. The other two victims were treated for minor injuries and released at the scene, Herrera said.
Police reached out to the public in hopes of finding the suspects, who were described only as male Latinos between 18 and 25 years old wearing Dodger clothing.
“We do have several leads we’re looking at,” Detective P.J. Morris told the Santa Cruz Sentinel. “We’re going to stay on this as long as have to get it resolved. I hate for this to happen. People come down to our city to enjoy a game and something like this happens. It’s not right.”
Police urged anyone with information on the attack to call the LAPD’s Northeast Station at (213) 485-2563.
Josh Rawitch, the Dodgers vice president of communications, said “it is extremely unfortunate that this incident took place on what was otherwise a great day at Dodger Stadium for tens of thousands of fans.”
“We’re committed to having the most fan- and family-friendly environment in baseball and will continue to make that a top priority,” Rawitch said. “We are cooperating fully with authorities during their investigation and we wish this fan a speedy recovery.”
Giants manager Bruce Bochy told reporters, ”it’s a shame that someone is in critical condition because of a ballgame.”
“Let’s not get too serious about this,” Bochy said. “We’re having a lot of fun out here, we’re doing all we can to win, just like the Dodgers trying to beat us, but when it starts getting violent, then it’s getting out of hand.”
When asked if there was any stadium that concerned him, Bochy replied, “Now it does. It hadn’t really concerned me in the past.”
Herrera said 89 people were arrested and cited at Dodger Stadium Thursday, and 72 of those were related to public intoxication in stadium parking lots. There were 132 arrests at the 2010 opener. Police also issued 52 traffic citations, she said.
In 2005, the Dodgers increased security and instituted an 11-point Code of Conduct after fans in outfield seats littered the field with debris in response to the arrest of two teenage boys who had gone onto the outfield, causing a six-minute delay in play while paper cups and plastic water bottles were removed.
The Dodgers show a video each game with an explanation of the Code of Conduct.
At the Dodgers’ 2009 home opener, also against the Giants, a 30-year-old man was stabbed in a Dodger Stadium parking lot about 90 minutes after the game ended.
Arthur Anthony Alvarez was found not guilty of an assault with a deadly weapon charge after claiming self defense.
His attorney, Deputy Public Defender Kate Hardie, said her client had been knocked to the ground and that a bottle had been thrown at his car, but Alvarez “kept trying to make peace with him.”
Deputy District Attorney David Reinert said he also believed it was a “self-defense verdict” based on questions that jurors had asked before reaching their decision
bttt
I’ve been to Dodger stadium before, a lot of gang members go to the game because the tickets are cheap. I’d bet good money that these suspects turn out to be gang members.
This has as much to do with a ballgame as the attack on, and murders of, the UN workers in Afghanistan had to do with the Koran burning in Florida.
Damned Libs always try to blame an outside "something", rather than the perp's own prediliction for, and love of, violence...but the first to scream, "don't blame the victim!"
Having dealt with my share of bullies and criminals, I know for certain that the only thing that actually "provokes" them is their own perception of somebody as a vitim.
LOL that picture of Marc Brown never gets old LOL
“Family Values Don’t Stop At the Rio Grande”-
GW Bush
I just don’t even like professional sports much....maybe I’m just getting older and crankier....
I don’t think the tickets are any cheaper there than other venues. And beer is definitely more expensive than Angel Stadium.
Well gee golly they look just like all the rest of the thousands and thousands of Mexican gangbangers around here.
Why are we as a supposedly civilized society putting up with this?
Crap like this doesn’t even happen in Detroit.
Yep, and coming soon to EVERYWHERE.
This country is on the express train into the sh***er.
It’s gotten so unbelievably dangerous in LA because of the monsters that are allowed to roam and rule the streets.
They should use terrorism and rico laws against them and round all the gangsters up. We need a new devils island type situation for them so they never terrorize our citizens again once caught.
That may sound crazy and cruel but what they’re doing now is not working at all. Let’s try something that will.
I have been a Dodger fan since 1961 when the Dodgers played at the Coliseum. I won’t go to Dodger Stadium anymore because of the gang factor and their supporters.
I think Dodger tickets are what, around 15 bucks(or am I wrong), I remember it being around that price. Laker tickets for the nosebleed section are now around 40 bucks(I remember when it used to be cheaper :(
Don’t be so hard on them, guys. They’re just committing the crimes Americans won’t do!
Football and basketball are much more expensive than baseball tickets. So, I guess they are cheap in comparison.
Clearly these were Mexican(or some other south of the border country) gang bangers. LA makes itself a sanctuary city in every thing but name and then this idiot Detective says something moronic such as the paragraph above.
What do they think happens when you throw your cities wide open to criminals and excuse them of the crimes they commit?
You have a good idea,but I will add to it. We need a round up of all illegals across the country and then we need to sentence them to about 10 years hard labor and put them to work building a wall along the border.
Solution for gang problem....sniper
Is the photo in your post #4 real??!! Real or not, that’s funny, right there.
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