Video of man who 'brutally punched' 2 women on L.A. street corner leads to arrest

Elise Solé

A man was arrested after police posted a video of two women being punched at a Los Angeles hot dog stand.

On Tuesday night, Arka Sangbarani Oroojian, 30, of Sylmar, Calif., surrendered to the Los Angeles Police Department Central Station, where he was charged with assault with a deadly weapon and held on $90,000 bail. The police tweeted about Oroojian’s arrest, writing, “We thank the community for their help in spreading the message.”

Earlier that afternoon, the LAPD tweeted Jan. 26 footage of a man on a busy street corner in downtown Los Angeles, alternating swings between two women. He punched one wearing a white jacket three different times, and another in black, knocking both to the ground. The man then ran down the street, with no one appearing to stop him or help the women.

A deleted Facebook post, reportedly by a victim’s father, Mike Watson, read, “Two girls are now lying on the ground, who both ended up in ER, and NOBODY even tried to help them up or ask if they were ok! Instead, the people standing around laughed and cheered as if the sight of two small girls getting beat on by a huge, 250 lb man was a sight of entertainment!”

Watson reportedly wrote, “He socked them both in the face not once, but MULTIPLE times, some of which were not caught on film,” and described the assault as a “blindsided sucker punch.” The dad also said the crowd behaved “as if they are watching an MMA fight!”

“For a crowd of men to sit back and not only watch, but film two girls get beat on by a 6’ 250 lb guy,” he wrote. “My family and I are disgusted to say the least.” Watson did not respond to Yahoo Lifestyle’s request for comment.

A witness named Stewart told CBSLA, “There’s two sides to every story, and those women started that” by calling the man offensive names.

“And they started punching on him first,” Stewart told CBSLA. “And once they punched on him first, they’re jumping on his back, then he defended himself by, you know, counter-punching these women and things like that. So the video caught only the second glimpse of the story.”

No one from the Los Angeles Police Department returned Yahoo Lifestyle’s requests for comment.

Meghan Aguila, a detective with the LAPD, told the Los Angeles Times that the man punched a woman because she told him to hurry up while he argued with the hot dog vendor. Her friend reacted, she added, so the man punched her as well.

Aguila said no one called the police that night. On Sunday, the victims reported the crime after a bystander showed them footage. The Times reported that both women suffered concussions and that one had a broken finger.

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