LOS ANGELES – Police are searching for four men and a woman accused of brutally beating a 92-year-old man with a brick as he walked through his Los Angeles neighborhood earlier this week.
Rodolfo Rodriguez's family told the ABC affiliate in Los Angeles that he had just finished dinner and was going on his daily walk around the block near his home when he was confronted by a woman walking with a child. His family said the woman was upset that he had accidentally bumped into the child.
A neighbor who witnessed the attack was able to photograph the brick-wielding woman and provide it to investigators.
Rodriguez's family told KTLA-TV that the woman from the photograph pushed Rodriguez to the ground, picked up a brick and began beating him with it. Eventually, four other men jumped in and began kicking Rodriguez, his family told the Los Angeles TV station.
Rodriguez's family told KTLA-TV that he was unable to walk after the attack and suffered bruised ribs, a broken cheekbone, a battered face and head injuries.
"How can you hurt a 92-year-old man? What kind of threat does he pose to you, for you to do this to him?" Rodriguez's grandson, Erik Mendoza, asked KTLA-TV cameras. "That's why we're still in shock, as you can see he's badly injured."
Authorities are looking for the five suspects in the attack and told KTLA-TV that they are concerned by the brutal nature of the crime.
"We are concerned, especially with the type of crime they committed," he told KTLA-TV. "There was what appears to be a 4-year-old child there who witnessed the entire thing. We can't have these kind of people like that out in the streets."