3 City Workers Hurt Breaking Up Attack

A group of city sanitation workers in North Hollywood were praised by police Wednesday for risking their lives in a fracas with suspected gang members--some armed with knives and ice picks--who had attacked a homeless couple.

“These city employees came out, and good citizens that they are, tried to intervene and nearly got murdered,” said Detective Gil Uribe of the Los Angeles Police Department.

At least three of the workers were injured, one seriously, in the fight that broke out about 3 p.m. Tuesday.

One worker, Alfredo Diego, said he was waiting for his wife to pick him up outside the sanitation yard on Chandler Boulevard, just east of Vineland Avenue, when he saw a group of teen-agers begin to punch and kick a homeless couple.

He yelled at the assailants to stop and tried to distract the attackers so that the bloodied couple could run away.

But the teen-agers turned their attention to Diego, witnesses told police, and Diego’s friend Jesus Reynoso stepped in.

Three or four of the teen-agers attacked Reynoso, “beating him and stabbing him,” Uribe said, adding that Diego thinks that Reynoso saved his life.

“They were going to stab Diego, so I went to help,” said Reynoso, 47, who was hospitalized overnight and recuperating at home Wednesday. “I didn’t even know I was stabbed because I was fighting. He is my friend, and I wanted to protect him.”

Others in the crowd of teen-agers drew their weapons, and some began throwing rocks and debris, Uribe said. The fight moved into the sanitation yard as other city employees--looking for tools that could be used as weapons--took steps to help, the detective said.

One worker, Glen Atkinson, was hit in the head by a brick and knocked unconscious as he walked over to see what was happening. Atkinson did not regain consciousness until Wednesday afternoon. His condition stabilized, Uribe said, after doctors removed skull fragments lodged in his brain, but he remains in serious condition.

Diego, 35, who was treated for minor scrapes and bruises, was back at work Wednesday.

“We all were scared,” Diego said. “We weren’t ready for this. Everything happened so fast.”

Diego’s wife, who arrived to pick him up in the middle of the fight, drove away after one of the assailants broke her front windshield. The attackers fled when they learned that police had been called, witnesses said.

Despite their injuries, Diego and Reynoso said they would not hesitate to go to someone’s aid again.

Police have no suspects and say they have very few descriptions to work with because the attack occurred so quickly, but they believe that gang members were involved.