The elderly, homeless and disabled are among the most fragile and at-risk populations in our country because predators believe they are too weak, unable, or incapable of fighting back.
According to police officers in Los Angeles, they discovered a vicious predator was cruelly targeting one of the most vulnerable populations in the city. When they apprehended the attacker, investigators discovered he shouldn’t have even been in the country to begin with.
A Worrying Trend
In 2018, police officers in the downtown Los Angeles area started noticing a worrying trend. According to the police, a string of attacks started happening on September 8. What was even more concerning was the fact that almost all of the victims were homeless.
The First Attack
According to authorities, the victim of the first attack, which occurred on September 8, was a person who had fallen asleep on the beach in Santa Monica. The victim was left with blunt force trauma to the head, and unfortunately, couldn’t remember much about the attack.
The Second Victim
At first, police believed that the September 8 attack was just a one-off incident. But then on September 10, another person was attacked in Santa Monica. This time, the victim was beaten so badly that they were left in a coma. Authorities didn’t think the two attacks were connected in any way until the following week.
The Attacks Turn Lethal
On September 16, three different homeless men were attacked in downtown Los Angeles. According to the police, the attacks occurred between 4 and 5 am when the men had all been sleeping on the side of a street. Tragically, two of the victims, 24-year-old Branden Ridout and 59-year-old Kelvin Williams, were killed in the attacks.
Linking The Crimes
The third victim, 23-year-old Tievon Harmon, was badly injured and put on life support after being repeatedly hit over the head with a baseball bat. By that point, investigators feared a single person was responsible for the string of attacks and that the person was deliberately targeting the homeless.
A Violent Predator
“This is a violent predator,” LAPD Capt. William Hayes said at a news conference. “Without engaging the individuals at all, he just savagely attacks them with a baseball bat,” Hayes said. According to the police, the attacker would then search his victims’ belongings and steal from them.
Preying On Vulnerable People
“He’s preying on innocent people. In most cases our victims were asleep,” Hayes added. While the police were busy investigating the crimes and working on their theories about the attacks, the attacker struck again. On September 20, police found 39-year-old Steven Cruze Jr. dead underneath the Santa Monica Pier.
A Victim’s Family Speaks Out
Cruz had also been viciously bludgeoned to death and stolen from. At first, police believed Cruze had been homeless, but his family claimed that the 39-year-old had decided to sleep under the pier that night after an overnight fishing trip. Yet the attacker must have thought Cruz had been homeless, which is likely why he was targeted.
More Victims
Around that time, police also discovered yet another victim in downtown Los Angeles. Just a few days later, the police found the attacker’s eighth victim, 63-year-old Jorge Martinez. This time, the victim had been found beaten and unconscious in Santa Monica. He was rushed to the hospital but was left in a coma.
Investigating The Latest Crime Scene
According to the authorities, they had been investigating that crime scene in Santa Monica when an officer saw a man walking down the street that caught his attention. The man, who police later identified as 47-year-old Ramon Alberto Escobar, seemed to fit the description of the attacker.
The Prime Suspect
The attacker had been described as having bowed legs, and the officer at the scene noticed Escobar’s bow-legged gait as he was walking near the crime scene. They immediately questioned him and arrested him on the spot. In the wake of his arrest, authorities found more evidence tying Escobar to the crimes.
The Evidence
Not only had they found bolt cutters that had been used in an attack, but they found the baseball bat believed to have been used in the deadly attacks in Escobar’s black Honda CR-V. During their investigations, police also found several other victims who they believe were attacked by Escobar in Santa Monica and Downtown Los Angeles.
A Victim Speaks Out
A homeless man named Salem is one of the survivors of Escobar’s deadly assaults. “He didn’t come up and introduce himself, he just came and tried to blend in with us, and to me, that was a red flag, like a no-no,” Salem told Fox News about the night Escobar attacked him.
The Surprise Attack
When Salem went into his tent, Escobar followed him and suddenly started hitting him over the head with the bolt cutters. “[I] got clobbered in the head with something heavy and hard, and all I could feel was the blood just dripping, cause I was bending down,” Salem said.
A Lucky Survivor
The blood was dripping into my eyes and the blows just kept coming,” Salem added. “Once I realized he was trying to kill me, it was like, this is it.” The next thing Salem remembers was waking up in the hospital with a fractured skull, subdural bleeding, fractures bones, and deep gashes.
Escaping A Serial Killer
“I don’t know how I survived that, blows to the head with bolt cutters, you just can’t imagine the pain it feels like,” Salem said. “It was a serial killer I was facing, this guy’s a murderer, a crazy one.” According to authorities, they are now considering calling Escobar a serial killer since serial killers are defined as a person having killed three or more victims.
The Charges
Once Escobar was in custody, authorities learned that 47-year-old had arrived in California from Texas on September 5, which was just days before the attacks started. Since his arrest, Jorge Martinez also died in the hospital from his injuries. As a result, Escobar was charged with four counts of murder, eight counts of attempted murder, and four counts of robbery making him eligible for the death penalty.
A Long History With Border Patrol
Investigators also learned that Escobar, originally from El Salvador, was previously a convicted burglar and had been deported six times from 1977 to 2011. “After illegally reentering the U.S. following his most-recent removal Alberto-Escobar filed an appeal of his immigration case with the Board of Immigration Appeals in June 2016, which the courts granted in December 2016. ICE released him from custody on an Order of Supervision in January 2017 pursuant to the court’s decision,” ICE said in a statement.
The Missing Relatives
After his release, Escobar went to live with his aunt and uncle in Texas. They wanted to help Escobar get back on his feet, but the pair went missing in August of 2018. According to the police in Houston, they suspected Escobar had something to do with their disappearance. After they questioned him, he fled to California in early September.
Hoping For Answers
“I’m glad that it can hopefully be solved, and I want justice to be served,” Escobar’s cousin, Ligia Salamanca told reporters. “And of course it gives me a fear for what happened to my mom and my uncle,” she said about the attacks and murders Escobar has been charged with.
