A 44-year-old homeless man with an extensive criminal history has been arrested in connection with a violent attack of an elderly Sikh man in North Hollywood earlier this month, officials announced Tuesday.
The brutal Aug. 4 violence unfolded at about 3:15 p.m. outside a 7-Eleven store near the intersection of Saticoy Street and Lankershim Boulevard.
Witnesses said that a man on a bicycle approached the victim and for reasons that were unclear savagely attacked him with the golf club before walking away from the area and leaving the golf club behind.
Surveillance footage of the incident is too graphic to show, though in video of the aftermath obtained by KTLA, the victim, 70-year-old Harpal Singh, is seen covered in blood while sitting on the ground, the golf club at his feet as others approach, presumably to help him.
The 70-year-old, who frequents Sikh Gurdwara of Los Angeles, his nearby place of worship, was rushed to the hospital where family members say he was treated for a skull fracture and possible brain trauma.
As of Monday night, a week after the attack, Singh remained in a medically induced coma.
In a Tuesday afternoon press conference, Los Angeles Police Department Chief Jim McDonnell announced the arrest of 44-year-old Bo Richard Vitagliano, an unhoused resident of L.A., in connection with the assault.
On Aug. 11, officers were provided with a photograph of the 44-year-old taken from surveillance cameras and spotted him with his bike near Lankershim Boulevard and Arminta Street in North Hollywood, where he was taken into custody.
“Based on the evidence in this matter, North Hollywood detectives believe the assault was not a hate crime, at least not from what’s been determined at this stage, but instead was motivated by a dispute over property belonging to the victim,” McDonnell stated.
The suspect, according to the chief, has previously been arrested for narcotics, assault with a deadly weapon and various weapons charges.
He was booked for assault with a deadly weapon and remains in custody at the Van Nuys Jail.
In a statement provided to KTLA from the Sikh Coalition, which expressed gratitude for the 44-year-old’s arrest, members of the group took some issue with LAPD indication that they are not investigating the assault as a hate crime.
“In the Sikh Coalition’s view it is impossible to completely rule out a bias motive at this stage,” the statement read in part. “The suspect has been in custody for less than 24 hours, and the victim himself remains unconscious and has thus been unable to sit for a full and comprehensive police interview, with professional translation services, separate from the interview taken immediately after the attack.”
Before moving onto another topic at the press conference, McDonnell added that officers will ramp up patrols in that area of North Hollywood, where many business owners who spoke to KTLA described the neighborhood as dangerous and plagued with vandalism and violence, much of it connected to the sizable homeless population.
The post Homeless man arrested in brutal beating of Sikh man, 70, in Los Angeles appeared first on KTLA.
