Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts said at a news conference Thursday night that video of the incident had surfaced.
Foto:
PATRICK T. FALLON / AFP / Getty Images
Inglewood officials Thursday released new details about the Violent altercation in the parking lot of SoFi Stadium on Sunday that left a San Francisco 49ers fan in a coma, while facing questions about why they didn’t tell the public about the incident sooner.
Three days and an investigation by the Los Angeles Times passed before Inglewood authorities acknowledged the incident, which left 40-year-old restaurant owner Daniel Luna in a medically induced coma.
Luna was found bleeding in the stadium parking lot just after 4 pm. Sunday, about a half hour after the start of the NFC Championship matchup against the Rams, but it remains unclear who made the 911 call that ultimately resulted in his transport to Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.
It has also not been established when police were informed of the incident.
Inglewood police said they began their investigation around 7 pm. after emergency room staff noticed possible assault injuries on Luna and summoned officers.
But the Los Angeles County Fire Department said police were at the scene hours earlier when paramedics arrived.
The alcalde de Inglewood, James T. Butts, said at a news conference on Thursday night that a video had surfaced showing people mingling in the parking lot, when a subject in a yellow shirt pushes an individual in a red shirt from behind and then turns to walk away.
“That person came and pushed Mr. Luna from behind, and when Mr. Luna turned around, (the person) hit him in what appeared to be the mouth area.”Butts said. He described it as “a little altercation”, saying that Luna fell and hit her head after the hit.
Some experts said the timing of the incident, weeks before the nation’s attention turns to that stadium for the Super Bowl, created a “public relations nightmare.”
Others said it raises important questions about safety and security protocols during big games, noting it’s not the first such violent incident in the Los Angeles-San Francisco sports rivalry.
On Wednesday, hours before the Los Angeles Times revealed Luna’s injuries, public health officials, local leaders and representatives from the NFL and SoFi Stadium held a news conference to discuss COVID-19 safety protocols for the Super Bowl. Bowl, but the incident was never mentioned.
Horace Frank, a former Los Angeles deputy police chief who oversaw the game’s top security operations, said it was inconceivable that authorities were slow to reveal the incident.
“They should release that information to the public because the perpetrator is a public safety hazard and a threat to the community,” Frank told the Los Angeles Times. “You want to bring the people responsible for this heinous attack into custody as soon as possible.”
Inglewood police Lt. Geoffrey Meeks denied Thursday that there was an attempt to cover up Luna’s beating in the run-up to the Super Bowl, saying, “We have nothing to hide.”
He said the department’s public silence was in accordance with standard practice for ongoing investigations.
“We tend to release information when we have exhausted all other investigative leads or are looking for specific information,” he said, adding that the publication of cases can lead to an avalanche of questionable advice that “forces us to spend time and resources to investigate each case. detail”. of the information that enters.
Read more
* A 49ers fan in a coma from an apparent beating outside SoFi Stadium during the NFC championship game
* Firefighter was on his way to a Rams game and stops to rescue a woman from her burning house in Los Angeles
* Gavin Newsom and Eric Garcetti were criticized for being photographed without wearing masks at the Rams and 49ers game at SoFi Stadium
