Homeless man pushes stranger into oncoming traffic

[ansible]

LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- A brutal, heart-stopping crime captured on camera in downtown Los Angeles' Jewelry District.

Police say the man seen here in a lime green jacket is a transient that frequents this area.

He's sitting in front of a restaurant around 10 a.m. on 6th Street near Broadway when the victim, believed to be in his 60's, walks by.

Unprovoked, he shoves him into oncoming traffic.

The victim is hit by a box truck and ends up under its tire.

The suspect picks something up and nonchalantly walks away.

As he's pinned for at least 10 seconds, a business owner rushes to his aid until paramedics arrive.

"He's listed in critical condition with a collapsed lung and scrapes, bumps and bruises and we think he is going to make it, which is great news," said Officer Mike Lopez with the Los Angeles Police Department.

A manhunt was underway for several hours.

Around 6:45, L.A. firefighters spotted the suspect a few blocks away, still in the lime green jacket, and called police.

Ryan Jeter recently moved to downtown and says this is the second violent attack he's heard about.

The last one occurred a few months ago.

https://www.kron4.com/news/california/caught-on-camera-homeless-man-pushes-stranger-into-oncoming-traffic/1643347470

[Downtown Hound]

1. Having been homeless myself I have lots of compassion for them

But it also means that I know how dangerous SOME of them are. We need state run mental health care. These people should not be left to fend for themselves on the streets where they are a danger to themselves and others.

[912gdm]

4. I have compassion for the people being pushed in front of traffic.

[Downtown Hound]

5. Um, congratulations on having basic human emotions. n/t

[Hermit-The-Prog]

6. rotten legacy of rotten ronnie

Ronald Reagan’s shameful legacy: Violence, the homeless, mental illness
As president and governor of California, the GOP icon led the worst policies on mental illness in generations

https://www.salon.com/2013/09/29/ronald_reagans_shameful_legacy_violence_the_homeless_mental_illness/

[Hekate]

8. I remember Governor Reagan very well, as I was just starting college when he was elected...

In the mid 1990s I returned to grad school for my MA/PHD and somehow good old Ronnie came up. One of the younger guys demanded to know how I could say such things about RR (closing state mental hospitals and turfing out the patients; saying if you've seen one redwood you've seen them all) and I rather sarcastically replied: "I was sentient at the time."

[Hermit-The-Prog]

10. perfect answer!

Reagan promised to do for the country what he did for California, and that's the only promise he kept. We still haven't recovered.

[misanthrope]

7. Agreed, there is compassion to go around

I am horrified at any citizen going about their business who doesn't threaten another ends up like this. Terrible!

I am also horrified that those who need institutionalization/therapy/long-term treatment under close supervision can't receive it anymore to the extent they could pre-Reagan.

It's a tragedy on all sides.

[Hekate]

9. One of the County commissions I used to work on helped some in overseeing the Sheriff Dept's ...

Last edited Sat Dec 8, 2018, 05:49 AM - Edit history (1)

...handling of the homeless mentally ill. It is a sad fact that local jails have had to become the de facto place of treatment for mentally ill people.

And of course it is inadequate in the extreme -- sheriffs, cops, and jailers don't go into their line of work to be psychiatrists or mental health counsellors; law enforcement is necessary work but a whole different orientation. But at least at the time I was still with the County, long after Reagan was gone from both California and Washington, multiple underfunded agencies continued to struggle with the subset of the homeless who were chronically ill and chronically on a revolving door with the jail because they could not cope.

Most are nonviolent -- but regardless, real help is hard to come by.

[Eugene]

2. Man charged for allegedly pushing passerby in front of truck in 'random,' 'unprovoked' attack: DA

Source: ABC News

Man charged for allegedly pushing passerby in front of truck in 'random,' 'unprovoked' attack: DA

By MARK OSBORNE, ALEX STONE and EMILY SHAPIRO Dec 7, 2018, 5:48 PM ET

The man who allegedly pushed a random passerby in front of an oncoming truck has been charged -- and he's accused of attacking two others this week, as well, prosecutors said.

Garrett Boldt, a transient, was arrested for a series of attacks in Los Angeles this week which appeared to be "random and unprovoked," the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office said Friday.

The push in front of the oncoming truck Wednesday morning was caught on shocking surveillance video acquired by ABC Los Angeles station KABC. It shows a man sitting on a bench by the sidewalk. He jumps toward one woman and startles her, before sitting back down.

But as the next passerby, a man in a suit, walks by, the man is seen jumping off the bench and shoving him into the street right as a truck is pulling up.

-snip-

Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/US/man-allegedly-pushed-passerby-front-truck-los-angeles/story?id=59681959

[Codeine]

3. Props to the truck driver for his quick braking.

His reaction time was the difference between injuries and a gruesome death.