More suspects sought in attack

Long Beach police continue to hunt for additional suspects in a Halloween night attack on three young women.

Already, nine girls and one boy have been arrested and charged with felony assault. But authorities said there were still more involved in the incident, which occurred in an upscale neighborhood blocks from the Virginia Country Club.

And by all accounts, it was an attack with racial overtones: The three victims, two of them 19 and one 20, are white; all of those arrested are black.

So, too, was the man who waded into the melee and rescued the women.

The assault on the women “appears to have been completely unprovoked,” said Jackie Bezart, a spokeswoman for the Long Beach Police Department.

The incident occurred about 9:30 p.m. Oct. 31 in the 3800 block of Linden Avenue, where the women had gone for a popular Halloween block party.

According to an account published in the Long Beach Press-Telegram, the women, whose full names were not divulged, were confronted by a group of about 12 males before and after they went through a haunted house on the street.

As the size of the crowd grew, the women were hit with lemons and small pumpkins. Then came a series of anti-white epithets and, in a matter of minutes, the women had been set upon by the crowd, while onlookers did nothing to stop the attack.

The women were beaten, one of them to unconsciousness.

One of the women was smashed in the head with a skateboard and kicked, while the other two were pummeled in the face and body.

At that point, a passerby -- whose name was not released by police -- started pulling attackers off the women.

“He went in there and started taking people off the dog pile,” said Long Beach Police Sgt. David Cannan. “That guy was able to go in and do something others couldn’t do. He stepped in. I hope he gets some recognition.”

When police arrived, they arrested the 10 minors, who remain in custody. Two detectives have been assigned to the case.

“It’s not like they were pushing and shoving at school,” Bezart said. “For all of them to be held over means it’s being taken very seriously.”

She also said it was disturbing to her that nine of those arrested were girls “with such a violent mind-set that they can so quickly go on the attack. It’s a testimony to the world we live in today.”

“We’re still looking for witnesses and suspects,” she said. “We know there were a lot of people out that night. It takes time to get all the stories from people. And it takes a little while to really follow through.”

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michael.kennedy@latimes.com