Man arrested in H.B. after San Diego assault

A 56-year-old man has been arrested in Huntington Beach after allegedly attacking a fellow motorist with a crowbar at a San Diego gas station, police said Tuesday.

Clare Lyle Neighbour was arrested by Huntington Beach police Monday when his car was spotted at a gas station. He was booked into county jail in San Diego on suspicion of attempted murder and attempted robbery.

San Diego police had received a tip that Neighbour was the heavyset man with a white beard who beat 25-year-old Carlos Ramirez on the head with a crowbar after Ramirez refused to give him money.

The incident began shortly after 2:30 a.m. Saturday when a man drove into a gas station in the Valencia Park neighborhood and asked for free gasoline, police said. The clerk refused. He then made a request for money from a woman who was waiting for her male companion to pump gas. She declined.

The man then asked the man pumping gas for money. When he refused, the man hit him repeatedly in the head with a crowbar before driving off, police said.

Ramirez remains in serious but stable condition in a San Diego hospital, police said.

This story was reported by Times Staff Writer Tony Perry.