Police in Huntington Beach, CA, have arrested four youths on suspicion of attempted murder in the beating of a 25 year-old man. The youths used their skateboards to brutally beat the man inside of a laundromat, according to the Los Angeles Times.
According to KTLA-TV, the man was beaten so severely that police initially thought that he may not survive. The man underwent emergency surgery and remains in critical condition.
Authorities are still looking into discovering the facts about what prompted the attack. Through statements given so far there appear to be two very different versions of what occurred at Murdy Park.
The version of the story told by police to KTLA-TV is that the skateboarders were involved in a fight amongst themselves when the girlfriend of the victim tried to intervene in order to break up the fight. After doing so, a group of up to seven of the skaters turned their attention to the girlfriend forcing the victim to get involved. The victim then fled across the street where the skaters caught up to him and beat him with their boards.
According to the father of one of the arrested youths, the skaters were acting in self defense after the 25 year-old man attempted to stab them with a screwdriver. The father was interviewed anonymously by KTLA-TV.
"He (his son) was attacked by the man," the father of one of the accused said. "The man came trying to stab him. He ran from the man. He threw his skateboard down hitting the man in his foot or leg, so I've been told, and he kept running. That's when the other boy hit the man in the back of the head with the skateboard."
Police will be looking into interviewing all of the witnesses in order to determine what actually happened.mThey also hope that security cameras outside of the laundromat will have recorded the incident.
