Pizza Deliveryman Partially Paralyzed by Asphalt-Hurling Youths

Four skinheads attacked a black pizza deliveryman in Granada Hills, hurling a piece of asphalt from a pursuing pickup truck and striking the driver in the back of the head, leaving him partially paralyzed, Los Angeles police said Friday.

Steven Mitchell, 32, of Van Nuys was injured in the attack Sunday, said Detective Wayne Newton, a hate crimes specialist at the Devonshire Division station.

“He has some paralysis in his left hand and neck injuries,” Newton said Friday after visiting Mitchell.

The incident began about 10:30 p.m Sunday when Mitchell was returning to a Pizza Hut in Mission Hills after trying to make a delivery at what turned out to be a false address. Mitchell was traveling east on Chatsworth Street near Hayvenhurst Avenue when a pickup pulled alongside and the skinheads shouted racial epithets and threats, Newton said.

Mitchell tried to evade the youths, but the truck caught up with him as he stopped at Chatsworth and Gothic Avenue, Newton said.

“One of them threw a chunk of asphalt and struck the victim in the back of the head and neck area,” he said. “He looked just in time to see it coming and tried to duck, but it hit him, causing some spinal injury.”

Mitchell lost consciousness for several minutes, then drove to the nearby Holy Cross Medical Center, where he was a patient until Thursday, Newton said.

Newton said it was unclear if the attack was planned. He said the attackers might have seen the deliveryman in the past and called in the false address to lure him. There are no suspects, he said.