Advertisement

Two arrested after attack on 45-year-old

Share

Two skateboarders were arrested Saturday for an alleged unprovoked attack on a father while he was jogging in Huntington Beach with his infant, officials said.

Jeffrey Paul Ruseler, 18, of Santa Ana, was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and William Alfred Smith, 22, of Mount Vernon, Wash., was arrested on suspicion of battery of a person, according to Huntington Beach Police Lt. Russell Reinhart.

The two, along with a third skateboarder, were riding down the sidewalk about 6:30 p.m. Saturday on Brookhurst Street north of Pacific Coast Highway toward a 45-year-old Huntington Beach man jogging and pushing his infant child in a stroller.

Advertisement

One of the skateboarders began yelling at the man and challenged him to a game of chicken in an attempt to scare him into getting off the sidewalk, Reinhart said. As they drew nearer, the jogger pushed his stroller into a planter to avoid the three skateboarders and pushed one of them to avoid colliding.

Ruseler and Smith then allegedly started punching the man and hitting him with one of the skateboards. The man fought back, and residents driving by jumped out of their vehicles to help him until the three fled the scene.

Police found Ruseler and Smith and booked them into the Huntington Beach Jail.

Ruseler is out on a $25,000 bail, and Smith is being held in custody at the Central Jail Complex in Santa Ana.

—Britney Barnes

Advertisement