CHP seeks public help in taped freeway beating
Jun 21, 2012, 2:13 AM
LOS ANGELES (AP) – The California Highway Patrol sought help from the public Wednesday as it investigated an online video that appears to show a man being beaten unconscious in a road-rage attack on an East Los Angeles freeway.
The video, which has drawn more than 100,000 views on YouTube and other networks, apparently was taken at about 3:30 p.m. June 12 on a transition road to the northbound Interstate 5, just south of Seventh Street, Sgt. Denise Joslin said at a news conference.
No arrests had been made and the status of the man who apparently was beaten remained unknown because nobody involved contacted the highway patrol, Joslin said.
KABC-TV identified him as Jerry Patterson but did not say where he lives.
“As I remember it, I’m trying to get away,” he said. “They followed me. It got to a point where they blocked me on the freeway. I couldn’t back up, couldn’t move forward and the guy got out of the car and I got out with him _ I wasn’t going to let him walk up on me _ and I just defended myself to the best of my ability.”
KABC reported that he said he suffered a concussion and doesn’t remember much of what happened.
“Twenty-20 hindsight _ stay in the car, call authorities. Don’t let your ego get in the way. It’s not worth it,” he said.
Officers responded to 911 reports of people fighting on the side of the roadway but when they got there, everyone had left, Joslin said.
Investigators learned of the video Tuesday and did not know who shot it, Joslin said, adding that it was unclear whether the video was real or staged.
The attackers left in a 1997 Volkswagen Jetta with the license plate 3UGW962, authorities said.
The approximately 2-minute video appears to be taken from inside a car driving on a nearly empty roadway with the Los Angeles skyline in the background. The car rolls up to where four men are standing next to two cars parked in a lane. They appear to be arguing.
A bald man in a striped sweater and a larger man in a red shirt raise their fists and square off amid repeated calls of “Let’s go.”
The larger man kicks at the other man, and they trade punches. A third man then jumps in and helps the bald man pull the red-shirted man to the ground. They struggle with the flailing man before he appears to be knocked unconscious. Both men then appear to kick him twice in the head before heeding calls to get into a car, which drives off.
Someone then asks the videographer: “You take the picture of that?”
The videographer replies that he “got the whole thing.”
A few seconds later, the videographer appears to go to the dazed man, urges him to get up, then hauls him up by one arm.
(Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
