Man sought in attack on Arleta woman

Los Angeles police asked for the public’s help Thursday in finding a man who beat an 86-year-old woman and ransacked her Arleta home.

The woman, identified only by her last name of Rojas, saw the intruder on her patio about 11:20 a.m. March 10 and told him to leave, said Det. Jo Anderson of the Los Angeles Police Department.

The man returned about 20 minutes later and knocked on her front door in the 13700 block of Chase Street.

When Rojas opened the door, “the suspect just punches her and drags her into the master bedroom. He goes and beats her and ransacks the bedroom,” Anderson said, adding that the woman pleaded with the suspect to not punch her in the chest because she had a pacemaker.

Then “he drags her back out to the kitchen area and punches her again and leaves,” Anderson said. The man stole several items from her home, police said.

Rojas was taken to the hospital, where she remains in critical condition on life support, police said.

Police described the suspect as a tall, heavyset, Latino in his 40s with black hair and a mustache. Anderson asked anyone with information to call her at (818) 838-9893.

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ari.bloomekatz@latimes.com