L.A. high school baseball player ‘beaten beyond recognition’ in alleyway assault
A 15-year-old student from San Pedro remained hospitalized Sunday with severe injuries after two men beat him while he was walking home, authorities said.
The student, identified as Evan Jimenez, was attacked at about 10 p.m. Thursday in an alley near 2nd and Bandini streets in San Pedro, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
A freshman baseball player at San Pedro High School, Jimenez and his team had defeated Gardena High School earlier that day.
Jimenez had left a friend’s house and was walking home when the two attackers struck him with a glass liquor bottle, stepped on him and left him “brutally beaten beyond recognition,” according to a summary of the account posted on GoFundMe.
Authorities told the Daily Breeze newspaper the attackers tried to choke Jimenez.
An unknown person found Jimenez unconscious in the alley, put him into a truck and took him to the Providence Little Company of Mary Hospital in San Pedro, sheriff’s Lt. Tony Del Pinto said. He has since been transferred to Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in serious condition, officials said.
The GoFundMe campaign, which was launched by friends and family to help cover Jimenez’s medical expenses, said he was “fighting for his life” in the hospital’s intensive care unit. As of late Sunday, more than $44,000 had been raised.
It’s unclear what motivated the attack. Authorities did not provide a description of the assailants, and Del Pinto said the investigation is ongoing.
“He’s a great kid with an infectious personality,” San Pedro head baseball coach Steve Tedesco told the Daily Breeze. “We liked his baseball talent and his character. He works extremely hard at the game and in the classroom. We’re all praying for him.”
Twitter: @MattHjourno
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