Local : Attack by Street Preachers Probed

Los Angeles police were investigating an attack on a Roman Catholic woman who said she was beaten by three Pacoima street preachers who told her she “needed to be a ‘born-again’ Christian,” authorities said today.

The attack on Alna Rosa Bolanos, 19, of Pacoima occurred at 11:40 p.m. Sunday at the intersection of Laurel Canyon and San Fernando Mission boulevards in Mission Hills, police said. The intersection is a popular Sunday night spot for teen-agers who cruise the area in cars and on foot and for preachers who offer sermons from the street curbs, police said.

Officers who went to the corner after Bolanos reported the attack at the Foothill police station found no preachers there, and no arrests have been made.

According to the police report, Bolanos was walking on the sidewalk at the intersection when she passed a group of four or five street preachers.

“They were standing on the corner preaching, and the suspects began yelling at her,” Lt. Bernard D. Conine said. “She told them to leave her alone, that she was Catholic. They said she needed to be a ‘born-again’ Christian.”

Bolanos told police that three of the preachers, two women and a man, crowded around her and began insulting her. She said one woman grabbed her from behind and the other struck her repeatedly in the face before she was able to break away.

The police report said Bolanos suffered a bruised cheek and two black eyes. She told police she would seek medical treatment on her own. She could not be reached for comment this morning.