Friends Beat Woman With Bat After Feud, Police Say

A San Fernando woman was in critical condition this morning after she was beaten with a baseball bat by two women she had been feuding with over the end of their friendship, Los Angeles police reported.

Elizabeth Valdavia, 20, suffered massive injuries to her head and upper body in the Tuesday night attack in Sylmar, officials said. She was in the intensive care unit at Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission hills.

After the attack, police arrested Dawn Michelle Rodriguez, 20, of San Fernando and Socorro Mauricio, 20, of Pacoima on suspicion of attempted murder. They were being held without bail at the Van Nuys Jail. An exact motive for the attack is not known.

“They were apparently feuding and breaking up a relationship that they had had,” Detective Al Ferrand said.

Police said Valdavia was assaulted at 9:30 p.m., shortly after leaving work at a fast-food restaurant where she had received a threatening phone call in which her friends allegedly told her that they were going to beat her up.

Rodriguez, Mauricio and two girls, 15 and 17 years old, waited in a pickup truck for Valdavia at the intersection of Borden and Beaver streets, Ferrand said.

As Valdavia walked through the intersection, Rodriguez and Mauricio got out of the truck and one of them was carrying a baseball bat, Ferrand said. They allegedly began clubbing and kicking Valdavia while the two teen-agers remained in the pickup.

Ferrand said a motorist driving by focused the high beams of his car on the three women. Rodriguez and Mauricio then ran to the pickup truck and sped away. But the witness provided police with the truck’s license plate number, leading to the arrests.