Suspect arrested for attack on 83-year-old man in Santa Ana
A 29-year-old man believed to be a transient was arrested Saturday for allegedly attacking an 83-year-old man at a Santa Ana shopping mall.
Demarrea Chante Barnes, 29, was arrested in Anaheim and booked on assault with a deadly weapon other than a firearm and assault with a deadly weapon with great bodily injury, according to the Santa Ana Police Department.
The attack occurred Friday at 6:10 a.m., and was captured on surveillance video.
The victim, identified by family members as Tuyen Nguyen, is seen shuffling toward the same store where they say he has purchased his coffee and newspaper nearly every morning for the last 15 years. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, the attacker jumps into the frame and knocks Nguyen to the ground.
The assailant then punches and kicks Nguyen as he lies on the pavement.
“I’m still in shock,” the victim’s son, Peter Nguyen, told KTLA-TV. “I still can’t believe this would happen to my family, especially to my father. He is the nicest individual — the last one that you could think something like this would happen to.”
Family members told the TV station that Nguyen was being treated for a brain hemorrhage and broken facial bones at a local hospital.
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