After brutal caught-on-video beating, O.C. man is charged in bus stop attacks

A Placentia man has been charged with attempted murder following the caught-on-video beating of a 65-year-old man in Buena Park and the attack on another man in Fullerton.

Kenneth Alexander Heimlich, 33, has been charged with one felony count of attempted murder, two felony counts of second degree robbery, three felony counts of assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury and one felony count of battery with serious bodily injury, according to the Orange County district attorney’s office.

Heimlich also was charged with one misdemeanor count of battery on an officer and faces enhanced penalties for rendering one of his victims comatose as a result of a brain injury, prosecutors say.

Heimlich was arrested June 12 after Fullerton police responded to reports of an assault at the Orange County Transportation Authority’s bus depot at 123 E. Santa Fe Ave. Authorities said Heimlich punched and kicked a 56-year-old man, causing him to fall to the ground during an argument.

A 17-year-old at the bus stop who tried to stop the assault also was attacked by Heimlich, who then stole $47 from the older man’s wallet, police said.

Earlier that day, police said an argument between Heimlich and a 65-year-old man in Buena Park escalated into violence when one shoved the other to the ground near a bus stop at Beach Boulevard and Orangethorpe Avenue. Heimlich kicked and stomped the man in the head, leaving him with serious injuries, and then stole the man’s bicycle, prosecutors say.

The Buena Park victim, whose attack was captured on video, remains in a hospital, where he had not regained consciousness as of Monday.

Investigators connected the two crimes after police identified Heimlich using video from the Buena Park attack.

Heimlich faces 18 years in state prison in addition to one year in county jail. He is being held in lieu of $500,000 bail and is scheduled to be arraigned July 8.