3 Grocery Employees Hurt in Random Attack; 6 Arrested

Six males described as “skinheads” and wearing steel-toed boots were arrested early Sunday after they allegedly walked into a supermarket and attacked three employees in what authorities called a random act of violence.

The employees of Ralphs, who ranged in age from 31 to 46, suffered injuries including a broken nose, black eyes, injured ribs, and cuts and bruises, said Lt. Charles Walters of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. None of the injuries were considered serious.

“It was random, there doesn’t appear to be any other explanation for it,” Walters said.

The suspects were arrested shortly after the 3 a.m. incident when deputies saw their van leave the market at 24871 Del Prado Ave., Walters said.

All the suspects were held on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, partly because they were kicking the victims with their boots, according to Sheriff’s Lt. Fred Lisanti.

The attack remains under investigation, but Lisanti said robbery or race don’t appear to have been motives.

He said the suspects confronted the employees, whose names were not released, when they entered the store and started a fight.

Lisanti said he believes two of the injured employees are white and the other is Latino.

“I don’t know what preceded the assault,” Lisanti said. “At this point, it appears just to be random violence.”

The suspects include three adults, Victor Romaero, 23, of Anaheim; Joshua Aardema, 18, of Laguna Niguel; and Travis Miskan, 18, of Murietta. Three juveniles--a 16-year-old from Long Beach, a 16-year-old from Temecula and a 17-year-old from Murietta--were arrested and taken to Orange County Juvenile Hall.

Aardema’s roommate, Chris Devenney, said the suspect graduated in June from Dana Hills High School and is not a skinhead.

“This doesn’t sound like Josh. He’s no skinhead; he’s a surfer,” said Devenney, adding that Aardema works on a fishing boat in Dana Point Harbor.

Devenney said he also knows Miskan, who used to live in the South County area, but did not think he was a skinhead either.

“I’ve never seen him get into a fight,” Devenney said.

The manager of the Ralphs market, Susie Miller, declined to comment on the attack and referred all calls to the corporate offices of Ralphs Grocery Co., which were closed Sunday.

The attack is the latest in Orange County this year involving youths described as skinheads because of their closely cropped hair.

In Newport Beach last month, four alleged white supremacists were arrested after what appeared to be a racially motivated attack on a Latino man while he was fishing on the Balboa Pier. Last February in Huntington Beach, a 20-year-old Native American man was stabbed 27 times by a skinhead, authorities said.