Los Angeles Police Reportedly Nab Illegal Beaner Suspect in Giants Fan BeatingLOS ANGELES -- Police in Los Angeles have arrested one of the two suspects believed to have been involved in the beating of San Francisco Giants fan Bryan Stow, the Los Angeles Times reports.
According to the report, police and SWAT teams surrounded an apartment complex in the East Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles Sunday morning and using loudspeakers with guns drawn, called out the occupants of a single apartment.
According to a witness, one of the men escorted out appeared to match one of the sketches issued by police shortly after Stow was savagely beaten outside Dodger Stadium on March 31.
He was described as bald with tattoos on his neck and arms.
Stow, a 42-year-old paramedic and father of two from Santa Cruz, suffered brain damage and has remained unconscious since the assault.
He was flown to San Francisco General Hospital Monday to be closer to his parents, Ann and David Stow.
Doctors said Wednesday that while Stow remained in a critical condition, his seizures had been brought under control, which allowed him to come off one of five anti-seizure medications.
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Dodgers institute zero-tolerance policy in wake of beating of Giants fan Bryan Stow
Photo: Bryan Stow was jumped after the Dodgers' home opener and remains in grave condition. Los Angeles officials have a message for rabble-rousers at Dodgers' games: Stay away.
After a Giants fan was severely beaten by two Dodgers fans last week, officials announced on Friday that they would be enforcing a "zero tolerance" crackdown at the stadium, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday.
"If you're coming to Dodger Stadium to cause problem, I advise you to stay home," Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa told reporters.
DODGERS HIRE EX-NYC POLICE COMMISH TO ASSESS STADIUM SECURITY
The team is also beefing up security after being slammed for taking the violent incident too lightly and even continuing half-priced beer sales at certain day games. Part team owner Frank McCourt reaffirmed his promise to increase efforts to keep the stadium violence-free.
On Saturday, the team also said it was reconsidering the beer specials after a report alleged alcohol played a role in the incident.
"We are going to provide a safe, family friendly environment at Dodger stadium," he said. "I promise you that."
While much of the stadium's additional security will be provided by LAPD officers, the bill will be footed by the Dodgers, the Times said.
Meanwhile, police haven't forgotten about the two men who started the security push at Dodgers' Stadium. The award for information leading to their arrest grew to $150,000 on Friday and Villaraigosa urged the perpetrators to turn themselves in.
"What you did was wrong," he said. "It was despicable and senseless, unprovoked. But, make it a little better, by coming forward, by doing what will be looked at in hindsight as doing the civil, right thing when you've done wrong."
The Dodgers' woes began on Opening Day when a man in Giants gear, later identified as Bryan Stow, was brutally attacked in the parking lot after the game. As of Wednesday, he was reported to be in critical condition with brain damage.
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Police Release Composite Sketches Of Suspects In Dodger Stadium Beating
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.
Donations for Bryan Stow and his family are now being accepted at banks and online.
Any bank listed at http://www.cuswirl.com also will accept donations, along with Common Wealth Central Credit Union. Both are under account No. 118881.
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Dodgers considering changes in beer sales, serving sizes as part of security review
Dodger officials have told the Los Angeles Police Department that they are reconsidering their plan to sell half-price alcohol at six games this season.
They also promised to look at prices and serving sizes for alcohol, as well as when to stop serving alcohol, according to Dodger spokesman Josh Rawitch.
The news comes as the Los Angeles Police Department announced plans Friday to bring aggressive crime-fighting tactics that it employs on city streets into Dodger Stadium as part of a security crackdown a week after a visiting fan was attacked in the ballpark's parking lot.
Overriding a Dodger policy against armed police inside the stadium, Police Chief Charlie Beck said Friday that uniformed officers will be posted throughout the ballpark and will be more aggressive about arresting or expelling people who cause trouble. Beck also said Dodgers owner Frank McCourt had agreed to pay for an increase in the number of LAPD officers patrolling in the stadium and the parking lots during and after games.
While the new crackdown does not address the issue of alcohol sales, the LAPD and the Dodgers said they are looking at the issue.
In an interview with The Times, Beck said he believed beer and alcohol consumption did, in fact, contribute to the problems at the stadium and said police officials were pushing the Dodgers to raise prices and stop sales at an earlier point in the games.
McCourt, however, said at a press conference Friday he was skeptical about how great a role beer sales played in the problems. "I don't think it's the sale of beer that's a problem, per se. I think it's the abuse of that privilege," he said.
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One of the comments in the comment section of the newspaper....
Look. I applaud what they are trying to do at Dodger Stadium and all but it seems to me that to many gangbangers are mixing in with the regular crowds at these games. Simply changing the drinking policy is only a band aid to the larger problem of gang activity yet again ruining it for everyone else. Something more needs to be done and may I suggest that the owners of the L.A. Dodgers start to implement some sort of profiling that can single out individuals who fit the description of what a gangbanger looks like. I know that seems far fetched but how many more time is the city going to be held hostage by these domestic terrorists because that is exactly who they are. Hell I remember how bad it was when the Raiders were in town and the fights that broke our at those venues. The L.A. Dodgers organization is privately owned so I think the owners can get away with the profiling. Just saying.