PLAYA DEL REY, Calif. – The mother of a sixteen-year-old boy is asking for community support as her son recovers from a vicious beating and stabbing by multiple people at Dockweiler Beach while his attackers shouted racial and homophobic slurs, the entire incident caught on mobile phone video.
A spokesperson for the Los Angeles Police Department told the Blade that based on witness statements some of the suspect assailants have been identified as minors and are being interviewed by LAPD detectives. The spokesperson noted that investigators are aware of the video footage of the attack, including it in their criminal probe.
The mother Frankie, who chose to remain unidentified by her surname, told both the LAPD and KABC 7 Eyewitness News the assault happened Feb. 10 at a bonfire party at the beach. She says her son suffered a concussion and spent days in the intensive care unit with severe injuries.
“He had a tube going through his chest. They had to collapse a lung to repair the other lung,” she said. “They had to take a camera in his stomach to check to see if there was anything else going on in his stomach because there was so much blood.”
According to the mother, the fight started after her son tried to help a friend and that he was not the aggressor – a detail police confirmed to KABC Eyewitness News.
“When he went to go help her up I guess the guys didn’t like it, and they came and wanted to fight, and my son didn’t want any problems,” his mother said. “The guy just pushed him, and then another guy came and they just all started attacking him – there was nothing my son could do.”
The video showed the teen cover his face as he’s being stomped, kicked and stabbed by at least five assailants. Also homophobic epithets and racist slurs can be heard yelled by the attackers. Initially when she got to hospital, When she got to the hospital, doctors told her they weren’t sure if he would survive. “Everything went black from there,” she added.
The LAPD has not classified it as a hate crime and continue to investigate.
The mother has set up a GoFundMe page to help offset medical expenses which continue to increase as he remains in hospital recovering and the costs of relocating.
Brody Levesque
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