A man was arrested Saturday on suspicion of assaulting three people in Pacific Palisades, according to victims and witnesses. They included a bloody homeowner and a magician who was sucker punched during a child’s birthday party.
Witnesses said the suspect was chased by angry parents before police arrested him.
The series of bizarre attacks began on Saturday around 3:30 p.m.
According to the Los Angeles Police Department, Brian Stennett, 36, assaulted an individual in the 400 block of Mesa Road. The victim’s identity and condition have not been released.
About 15 minutes later, Pacific Palisades homeowner Mike Deasy was driving home when he noticed Stennett walking nearby. He told the Times that he heard Stennett make a loud noise as Deasy drove by. When Dizzy got home, she grabbed the package delivered to her front door with both hands and put it inside, unable to close the door behind her.
He said Stennett was in the doorway when he returned to close the door. Stennett asked him, “Is this your home?”
“I don’t remember what I said,” Deasy said. The man then allegedly lunged at him and punched him six times. The moments leading up to the attack were captured on surveillance video from his home. The suspect appears to be speaking incoherently before attacking.
In an interview with ABC7, D-Eazy appeared battered and battered, with blood flowing from his forehead and his arm bandaged and bruised. In an interview with The Times on Monday, he said he was in “quite a bit of pain” but that doctors had cleared his head injury.
Less than an hour later, local performer California Joe the Explorer Magician held a pirate-themed 4-year-old’s birthday party at Rustic Canyon Recreational Park, a quarter mile off Mesa Road. He was performing magic. In front of about 60 guests.
The baby girl’s father, Alec Egan, said about 30 children were sitting in a semicircle around the tree. When my parents saw a man walking behind a tree, they thought he might be part of a magician’s act, or at least someone invited to a party.
“He looked like a dad picking mushrooms,” said Egan, who was holding her toddler about 50 feet from the tree.
Mr Egan said he heard Mr Stennett yell slurs at the magician, whose real name is Richard Ribaffo.
Ribaffo told the Times that when she saw Stennett, she thought the man was a parent trying to do something subversive to their daily lives to make it interesting. “It happens more often than you think.”
He said he heard Stennett yell, “Shut your voice!” Ribaffo thinks he may have been referring to the sound coming from the microphone. He appeared to be under the influence of drugs or had mental health issues, Ribaffo said.
Egan said Stennett then ran from behind a tree and sucker punched the magician in the forehead when he was about three yards away from the children.
“This surprised all of us,” Ribaffo said. He said he asked his parents to call 911 and was able to keep his distance from his attacker until help quickly arrived in the form of his angry father.
Describing it as a “red-hot, primal fatherly feeling,” Egan said he “passed the football” of the infant to his stepmother and started running toward Stennett with two friends. Stennett fled and the three chased Egan down Sunset Boulevard before he returned to the park. The other two men continued the chase into the North Village area, keeping Stennett in their sights until police arrived and arrested him, police said.
Ribaffo, who suffered bruises and swelling to his head from the attack, said he was in good health and credited his martial arts studies for his calm reaction and control of the situation. “Guys, let your kids learn karate,” he said.
Egan and Libuffo said part of the shock of the attack was because it was set up in a park they had claimed was safe.
“It was completely unexpected,” Ribaffo said.
Egan said the children returned to the party after the incident and had fun until the scheduled end. He said his daughter was fine, but asked what the “assault” was and whether the man had been invited to the party. She said her daughter’s kindergarten sent a letter to parents with advice on how to explain the incident to children.
Egan said of California Joe: [the punch] Like a champion. ”
Ribaffo said she was disappointed not to be able to finish her show for children. She said she tried to give her parents a discount, but they paid the full amount, plus a tip. He said he’s not angry at the man who attacked him, but hopes he gets the help he needs.
“He’s having a much worse day than I am right now,” he said.
Stennett was arrested on suspicion of assault and booked into the Van Nuys Jail. He is awaiting formal charges, but no court date has been set as of Monday night.
