Police trying to determine if there’s a link between hammer attacks in Boyle Heights and East L.A.
Los Angeles police are investigating two recent assaults in Boyle Heights in which people were struck in the head with hammers in order to determine whether there is a connection to similar attacks earlier this year.
Most recently, a man was walking his dog around 6:25 p.m. July 21 when he was struck near Savannah and New Jersey streets, City News Service reported. Police said the attacker and the man got into an argument and when the man tried to walk away, the assailant took a hammer from a backpack and threw it at the back of the man’s head.
The victim’s family took him to the hospital, where he received stitches. Police located a witness who confirmed the dog-walker’s description of the attacker as a light-skinned man between the ages of 40 and 45 with brown hair, wearing a baseball cap and flannel shirt and carrying a backpack.
“It’s not a common thing for someone to be carrying around a hammer, using it as a weapon,” Det. Supervisor Raymond Martinez said. “It’s kind of unique.”
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Martinez said the description of the suspect is similar to one in another case involving a hammer.
On July 9, a homeless man was attacked following a verbal altercation with someone who was seen rummaging through the man’s belongings under an overpass near Union Pacific and Grande Vista avenues, police said. The homeless man was hit in the head with a hammer several times and knocked unconscious. The attacker was wearing a blue-and-yellow striped shirt, according to the victim’s description.
“It’s possible that the suspect is the same because some of the descriptors match,” Martinez said.
There also may be a connection to two attacks from March in East Los Angeles.
On March 25, a suspect described as a 40- to 45-year-old man between 5-foot-10 and 6 foot attacked an elderly man with a hammer in the 1400 block of South Bonnie Beach Place and then assaulted a 23-year-old woman in the 4400 block of Triggs Street a few hours later. Both victims were hospitalized, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
“We’re trying to get in contact with the East Los Angeles sheriff’s [department] to compare the two, and see if there is match,” Martinez said.
On June 1, Gustavo Gonzalez was arrested in East Los Angeles on suspicion of trying to kill his mother with a hammer.
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