Woman accused of attacking 91-year-old is charged with attempted murder
Rodolfo Rodriguez was attacked by several people after reportedly bumping into a little girl on his daily walk in South Los Angeles.
A 30-year-old woman has been charged with attempted murder in an attack on a 91-year-old man on the Fourth of July, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.
Laquisha Jones was also charged with elder abuse and infliction of injury in connection with the attack, in which an elderly man was struck with a brick in Willowbrook last week, the district attorney’s office said. Prosecutors are asking that bail be set at $1.125 million.
Prosecutors said Jones attacked Rodolfo Rodriguez near 118th and Robin streets. Following the assault, they said, Rodriguez was taken to the hospital and Jones fled the scene.
Century Station detectives arrested Jones on Tuesday night.
Rodriguez had gone out for a walk in Willowbrook about 7 p.m. on July 4 when he was assaulted, according to a GoFundMe campaign set up by his family. Rodriguez has a broken cheekbone and bruises on his face.
His family said a woman confronted Rodriguez after he reportedly bumped into a little girl who was with her. Rodriguez was then struck from behind, and “as he fell on the ground, he blacked out,” Sheriff’s Det. Matt Luna said.
Misbel Borjas, who lives near Rodriguez, was passing by in a car when she saw him walking and trying to pass a woman and a girl. Then, Borjas said, she saw the woman push Rodriguez and start to hit him with a block of concrete.
“She was yelling at him, ‘Go back to your country,’ or ‘Go back to Mexico,’” Borjas recalled. “It was racist.”
But authorities said that through their investigation, “detectives have discovered that this is not a hate-related incident.”
Jones is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday afternoon. The felony complaint includes special allegations that she used a deadly and dangerous weapon (the brick) during the commission of the crime and that she committed great bodily injury upon the victim, according to the district attorney’s office.
The charging document alleges that Jones was previously convicted of making criminal threats in 2017, in an unrelated case.
If convicted as charged, Jones faces a maximum possible sentence of 29 years in state prison.
Twitter: @Brittny_Mejia
UPDATES:
12:25 p.m.: This article was updated with charges being filed in the case and additional details of the incident.
This article was originally published at 7:35 a.m.
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