This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
Horrifying video has emerged of a man being brutally beaten in Venice last Friday.
The video, which was originally uploaded to LiveLeak, shows two men confronting the homeless man and beating him with what look like lead pipes. An attacker in a white shirt then grabs a folding chair and repeatedly strikes the victim, who by this point has been cowering on the ground. Multiple blows land on the victim's head and neck area. Throughout the terrible scene, the attacker repeatedly calls the victim a "puto" and a "stupid piece of shit."
Afterward, police and paramedics arrive, but the attackers had fled by then. There isn't a known motive for the attack, which happened on the 1300 block of Ocean Front Walk near Horizon Avenue, KTLA reports.
"It doesn't appear to be provoked, and this is still in the early stages of the investigation," LAPD Capt. Victor Davalos told KTLA.
Anyone with information about the attack is urged to call the LAPD's Pacific Division at 310-482-6334.
UPDATE 12:30 p.m.: City News Service is reporting that the victim suffered multiple injuries, including a broken arm and a head injury, before being treated and released from the hospital. Police are saying that the attackers and the victim all knew each other and that there was some type of dispute between them.
The witness who recorded the video, identified by ABC 7 as James Karhu, said that he was scared to intervene. "They were throwing beer bottles. I tried to get in the middle of stuff in the past, and then I become the target," Karhu said. "I had heard somebody else had called 911, so what I was trying to do was I was trying to get video footage that would at least help catch this guy."
