Simone WilsonUpdate: 31-year-old Giovanni Ramirez is under arrest for the beating. According to KTLA, “he was booked for assault with a deadly weapon, and is being held on $1 million bail.”
Updated after the jump: One man has been arrested for the Bryan Stow beating. Several other individuals were taken into police custody for questioning. Originally posted at 11 a.m.
Two Dodgers fans were reportedly called from inside their East Hollywood apartment by a SWAT-team bullhorn while the sun rose behind the fog this morning.
As three stories' worth of neighboring tenants looked on, the two suspects — a man and possibly a woman believed to have aided in the near-death beating of Giants fan Bryan Stow on Opening Day — were handcuffed and transported to the Northeast Community Police Station in Atwater Village for questioning, City News Service reports.
The arrests are a huge turning point in an investigation that involves a $200,000 reward, 17 20 full-time LAPD detectives and two of the most infamous composite sketches in L.A. history, mounted overhead the city via 200 “WANTED” billboards. The Los Angeles Times spoke with the manager of the suspects' apartment building after the 7 a.m. spectacle:
According to apartment building manager Maritza Camacho, police, using loudspeakers and with guns drawn, called out to the occupants of Apartment 25. Inside was one of the men police suspect in the March 31 beating that left Stow with brain damage.As residents of the three-story building stood watching from balconies, police removed, one by one, the people who were inside the apartment, according to Camacho. Among them was a man with a bald head and tattoos on his neck and arms, she said, a description that appeared to match the vague sketches released by police of one of the two suspects. She added that he did not appear to resist being taken into custody.
City News Service then reported that there were two suspects being questioned at the station. CNS reporters tell the Weekly that this information was based on a KTLA report (and KTLA partners with the Times) that said “a man and a woman were taken into custody.”
Now, the KTLA piece reads:
Detectives say they have several strong leads, particularly pertaining to the female driver of the car that took the two suspects away on the night of the beating.
Indeed, the latest clues unveiled to the public were in regard to the female getaway driver, who LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said last week was wearing Dodger Andre Ethier's No. 16 jersey at the time of the assault. Witnesses also saw a 10-year-old boy in the car.
Bryan Stow with his kids before the violent beating
On May 18, ESPN Los Angeles reported that police had “shifted their focus to identifying the woman who helped the two assailants escape after the attack.” She was described as a short Latina woman in her 20s “with brown or dyed hair in a ponytail.”
Northeast detectives tell us that all will be revealed at a 4 p.m. press conference today, taking place above Dodger Stadium in Lot G. Updates to come.
Bryan Stow, a 42-year-old paramedic and father of two from Santa Cruz, was moved from Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center to San Francisco General Hospital just last Monday. The Mercury News reports today that “Stow remains in critical condition in a coma but has opened his eyes.”
Regardless, the recent LAPD progress comes as a huge relief to the family:
“It's huge. We are excited to say the least. My mom and I haven't stopped shaking since the call,” [Stow's sister Bonnie] said. “At least they have one in custody. It's one less thing on our minds.”
Update: The Times reports that there were several people in Apartment 25 with the tattooed assault suspect, and that police were led there on a tip from a parole agent. It appears news stations have surrounded the place, a la Mildred Baena:
Credit: Los Angeles Times
There were actually a number of people from the East Hollywood apartment taken into custody this morning:
Camacho said that the man taken into custody Sunday morning had not been a longtime resident of the East Hollywood apartment building, but she had begun to see him coming and going in the last few months. She said a woman, her husband, their two adult children, and the woman's brother lived in the two-bedroom unit. Police detained the other people who were in the apartment Sunday morning, Camacho said.
Credit: Twitpic via @villaraigosa
Update, 4:30 p.m.: At the press conference, Chief Beck said the police search warrant was for the place (located on Mariposa Avenue, near the 101), not a particular person, but that the LAPD will be booking one man for Stow's assault this evening. Police are still searching for two more suspects.
Apart from that: “Right now, it's extremely important that we keep as much of the investigation confidential as possible.” CBS2 reports the following:
“We have one suspect in custody and multiple, additional people detained at the residence of the search warrants and we're currently continuing our investigation,” said Lt. Rick Stabile of the LAPD Northeast Division. …Beck said he wouldn't give any more details on the suspect in custody as they were still searching for two others.
Footage of the SWAT raid:
Dodgers owner Frank McCourt, with typical bad PR luck, couldn't make the conference, but sent a messenger to thank Beck and let the public know his “thoughts are with Bryan Stow.”
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