2 Boys Held in BB Shooting of Hiker, 79

Two boys attacked an elderly hiker with air rifles, for no apparent reason, near Griffith Park on Sunday afternoon, wounding him several times in the face, police said.

“They were making a joke out of it,” Stephen Felszeghy, 79, of Hollywood said Sunday evening after being treated at a hospital and released. “They enjoyed shooting at me from the back.”

Felszeghy, a retired architect, said he turned and shouted: “This is not a joke. Don’t do this.”

The boys offered him a Band-Aid and put it on his face after they shot him, he said.

“I continued my hike, but one wound started to give me pain,” he said. “I saw something protruding beneath the Band-Aid and knew this was something more serious.”

Felszeghy had been hiking a trail north of Bronson Avenue on Canyon Drive, near the southern approaches to the park, when he was assaulted about 2:30 p.m., police said.

“I drove to the Hollywood station to ask for first aid,” Felszeghy said. “The police took it much more seriously and said we should look for the boys.”

He accompanied officers back to the trail, where he spotted the boys. A 15-year-old and an 11-year-old had fired the BBs at him, he said. Another 11-year-old was with them but did not take part in the attack, Felszeghy said.

“They knew this gentleman was bleeding, terrified,” Officer J. Leuck said. “One admitted the attack. The two who were responsible thought it was a joke.”

The boys were walking down the sidewalk carrying two air rifles--one with a missing stock--and an air pistol, Leuck said.

“They had plenty of ammo,” she added. “One was also carrying the blade to a straight razor.”

Felszeghy said that he has been hiking Canyon Drive every Sunday for at least 20 years and that he felt the first BB pellet when the boys were from 40 to 50 feet away.

“I ran toward them and they first ran away,” he said. “Then they turned and started to shoot me more seriously. I should have run away, but the problem is that it is such a steep road. I cannot run so well with my 79-year-old legs.”

Felszeghy was taken to Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital, where five pellets were removed from his face and ear. X-rays showed one pellet deep in his cheek, and doctors did not remove it because to do so would have left a scar larger than the wound, he said.

“I was lucky that my eye was not hurt,” he said.

The two boys who allegedly did the shooting are being held for investigation of assault with a deadly weapon at the Eastlake juvenile detention facility, police said. The third boy was not held.

Police said there are no age restrictions for possession of air rifles.