City Arrests Suspect in Attacks on Elderly Residents, Including One at Lincoln and Wilshire

An 87 year old man reportedly suffered a violent blow to his head delivered by another male pedestrian. The assailant and victim were walking at the intersection of Lincoln and Wilshire on Saturday December 7th 11.15am.

The family has appealed to local residents, seeking to find any witnesses, and any information possible to identify and capture the suspect. The victim is a retired doctor and a longtime Santa Monica resident.

The victim is described as an 87 year old Asian male 5'7" in height. He was wearing a dark blue baseball cap and tan colored jacket, blue pants, grey sneaker shoes, and was walking with a cane in hand at about 11:15 am on 12/7/19. The suspect delivered a violent blow to his left front face which knocked 2-3 upper teeth, split upper dentures in half, swollen face/chin, split upper lip, and severe bleeding on face, clothing.

After buying coffee outside CoffeeBean on 9th and Wilshire, the victim walked Westbound on the North side of Wilshire Blvd. Having just crossed Lincoln,10 steps onto the sidewalk, the suspect punched a violent blow and disappeared quickly.

The victim has macular degeneration in his eyes. In combination with his injuries, this prevented him from fully identify the suspect, whom he nevertheless describes as a Latino/Caucasian man, 5"5 height, medium build with short dark hair.

After the assault, the victim "kept walking on Wilshire crossing 7th to Chase Bank then Northbound towards California St. A police report was filed 1 hour after the scene, then admitted to E.R. Now he's in stable conditions with 5 stitches, purple bruises, thankfully no brain nor bone injuries via CT scan, but in much pain," say reports on social media.

Update: The City of Santa Monica may have made a related arrest. This came to us Monday morning from Public Information Officer for the SMPD, Lt. Candice Cobarrubias:

"On December 7, 2019 at approximately 12:25pm, Officers responded to the area of 1100 block of 7th Street for an assault on an elderly male. A male subject struck an elderly male in the face causing significant facial trauma. The attack was unprovoked. The suspect was later found by officers in the area of 800 block of Ocean in Palisades Park.

The suspect was taken into custody without incident. Due to the fact he may be involved in additional crimes, we are not releasing his name or photo at this time. We are conducting follow up into the assault and the investigation is ongoing."