The surveillance video is tough to watch but impossible to ignore. A group of teens rush toward a 57-year-old man walking in a dimly lighted alleyway near the Hermosa Beach Pier. They surround him, throwing him to the ground and stomping on his head until he loses consciousness.
“He’s dead, he’s dead,” one of them shouts before they jump on their thousand-dollar e-bikes and speed away.
The viral recording of the Nov. 21 incident has become the latest — and most serious — flashpoint in the escalating conflict over teen e-bike culture in L.A. County’s South Bay region.
Some beach cities residents say the teens’ aggression reflects a broader attitude: that e-bike riders, emboldened by their protected status as minors, increasingly act as if they own the streets.
“They run stop signs, they’re speeding, they’re flipping people off. They’re on their phones or filming themselves for social media,” said Redondo Beach resident Darryl Boyd. “It’s a circus — a psycho circus.”
E-bikes have exploded in popularity across the South Bay over the last five years, becoming the default way many teenagers travel to school and meet up with friends. The devices have been adopted by teens across the Golden State, leading to a surge in e-bike-related injuries and collisions.
The machines cost anywhere from $1,000 to $6,000. Type 1 e-bikes, which are pedal-assisted, and Type 2 e-bikes, which are pedal- and throttle-assisted, can reach up to 20 mph, while Type 3 e-bikes can go up to 28 mph and may only be ridden by those 16 and older in California.
Pocket bikes, electric motorcycles and electric dirt bikes, which are generally not street legal in California, can reach speeds of 45 to 55 mph. These devices are particularly popular among teen boys, who use them to perform high-speed stunts.
Enforcement of e-bike-related issues is a serious challenge. They do not require a license to ride, which makes it difficult for police to track riders who engage in dangerous behavior. Officers also are reticent to engage e-bikers in pursuits given the potential for injuries and lawsuits, according to the Hermosa Beach Police Department.
The Los Angeles Police Department, for example, was sued in September for allegedly deliberately striking a 16-year-old on a motorbike.
Representatives from the Redondo Beach, Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach and El Segundo police departments cited a similar set of issues when asked about their primary concerns with e-bikes — unsafe speeds, failure to obey stop signs and red lights, and juveniles illegally operating electric motorcycles or dirt bikes.
Manhattan Beach Police Department spokesperson Sgt. Andy Abreu said there has been “mob-like behavior” by some kids on e-bikes.
Hermosa Beach Police Chief Landon Phillips said the recent assault appeared to be an isolated incident. However, he noted that when e-bikers gather in groups of five or more, they have been known to harass residents.
“In that type of group, they do form mob mentality. It can escalate quickly,” he said. “If somebody says something or does something to counteract the group of kids, they all kind of jump all over it.”
In the aftermath of the assault, Hermosa police have stepped up e-bike enforcement around the Strand, the city’s paved oceanfront path, and in downtown areas, Phillips said. Officers have issued 26 citations related to e-bikes since Nov. 21 and have impounded 13 e-bikes that were either illegal or being used in an unsafe manner since Nov. 14.
The department is aware of informal teen e-bike gangs with names such as the Goons and the Redondo Beach Killers that have previously been involved in vandalism cases, Phillips said. These groups do not meet the definition of a criminal street gang under California law, as their main activities do not involve engaging in a pattern of serious crimes, he added.
There’s no information that the teens in the Hermosa Beach assault were affiliated with either group, he said.
The department has identified five teen boys ages 13 to 15 years old who were involved in the attack and arrested two boys identified as the primary assailants Nov. 26. Their identities have not been released due to their protected status as juveniles.
The L.A. County district attorney’s office filed felony assault charges against the two arrested teens, and further charges could be filed against other teens involved once the department completes its investigation, Phillips said.
Students at Manhattan Beach Middle School were involved in the incident, the school’s principal, Matthew Horvath, confirmed.
Attorneys for two teens charged in connection with the assault say the man was intoxicated and attacked their clients’ 14-year-old friend, prompting the minors to retaliate.
Defense attorney Glen T. Jonas said the social media clip “hijacked the incident to promote a narrative that plays into everyone’s frustrations and fears regarding a general e-bike problem.”
Although some residents interpreted the video as a sign of a broader crisis, others felt the community backlash was overkill.
“Overall, kids on e bikes are courteous and respectful,” said Hermosa Beach resident Brian Clark, adding that the assault was “an isolated event that, unfortunately, received nationwide attention.”
Hermosa Beach City Councilmember Dean Francois said he hoped the arrests would send a clear message that the city will not tolerate violence.
“We’re doing everything we can to stop this from ever happening again,” he said. “They got caught. We will catch more if it happens again.”
Hermosa Beach resident Matt Terrill witnessed the assault unfolding and called 911. When he returned to check on the victim, he found the man lying face down on the pavement with his shirt pulled over his head.
“I really thought I was going to have to see a dead guy in the street,” he said. “I was actually kind of surprised he was breathing.”
Terrill said he worried about intervening in the attack for fear that he could then be charged for assaulting a minor, he said.
On Nov. 13, eight days before the assault, the Hermosa Beach Police Department hosted a public safety forum focused on issues associated with e-bikes. One resident asked what adults should do if they are harassed by teens, citing an incident where a man was sued for allegedly physically retaliating against teens in Redondo Beach, according to reporting from the Easy Reader.
Phillips advised walking away from the situation when possible and calling police if it continues to escalate. But if adults are attacked by a minor, they do have the right to defend themselves, he said.
David Carlton, a former Manhattan Beach resident, told The Times that a confrontation with teen e-bikers in the city led to his arrest and drove him out of his hometown of 33 years.
He claims he had repeatedly been harassed by a group of teen e-bikers who congregated around Vons in downtown Manhattan Beach. Then on Dec. 31, 2022, Carlton claims one of the boys rode directly at him and he reached out to try and grab at the teen, who then fell off the bike.
Manhattan Beach police arrested Carlton and he later took a plea deal for misdemeanor willful cruelty to a child, according to police and court records. He said he took the plea bargain to avoid the cost and risk of going to trial, but does not believe he harmed the minor.
Abreu, the Manhattan Beach Police Department spokesperson, declined to comment on Carlton’s perception of events but said statements officers gathered from all parties at the scene that day led them to determine that a crime had occurred.
Carlton said he struggled to retain clients as a lawyer because the record of discipline is listed on his California Bar profile. Ultimately, he decided to move to the East Coast to start a new chapter.
“I think about this [case] at least once a day,” he said. “It eats at you.”
Manhattan Beach enacted an e-bike urgency ordinance in September 2023 that requires minors to wear helmets, prohibits riding on the Strand, bans racing and stunt activity and sets a 15-mph speed limit on the beach bike path, among other restrictions. Violations can result in a misdemeanor and fines of up to $500 for the first offense, which parents may be liable to pay on behalf of their child.
Hermosa Beach adopted a very similar urgency ordinance in June 2024 that also gave the department the ability to impound e-bikes, pocket bikes and electric motorcycles of minors engaging in unsafe behavior.
Then, earlier this month, El Segundo passed its own ordinance giving police the ability to issue citations for unsafe operation of e-bikes, pocket bikes, electric motorcyles and similar devices and authorizing police to impound devices when ridden unsafely by juveniles.
Police departments in all three beach cities and El Segundo also provide e-bike safety education at local schools.
Nonetheless, some residents feel like safety issues have gotten worse, not better, in recent years as more teens have started riding e-bikes.
“It’s too hard for the police. I think there’s too many [e-bikes], they’re not regulated,” said Hermosa Beach resident Elaine Kim.
Kim said her 7-year-old son had been bullied by some teens on e-bikes. But, more alarmingly, her three young children were in the Hermosa Beach Pier area when a teen launched fireworks off an electric motorcycle into a crowd of people.
“It was horrifying and I’m just so thankful that nothing did happen to them,” she said.
Redondo Beach resident John Perchulyn said he hoped the recent assault would serve as a wake-up call for local government to take stronger steps to crack down on bad behavior.
“They’re out of control,” he said. “They just have no respect for adults, have no respect for people.”
Francois, the Hermosa Beach City Council member, said state law limits the city’s ability to regulate teen behavior on e-bikes. Ideally, he would like some form of license to be required to operate an e-bike, giving police a tool to track offenders.
He said, however, it is challenging to form statewide alliances to push for such a legal change.
“The public in rural areas are not confronted with this problem,” he said. “Then we have urban areas that are confronted with so many more urban problems that it’s just hard to get a consortium together.”
State lawmakers have attempted to increase e-bike safety, passing bills to ban speed-modification kits that push e-bikes past legal limits and to require more stringent safety standards for batteries. Recent state laws have also allowed San Diego County to ban riders under 12 from using e-bikes and given Marin County authority to set helmet mandates for minors and stricter age requirements for certain classes of e-bikes.
But with the popularity of e-bikes continuing to grow, it’s clear that associated problems are not riding away any time soon.
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