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Woman Arrested For Violently Beating 92-Year-Old Willowbrook Man

WILLOWBROOK (CBSLA) – A woman has been arrested on allegations she violently beat a 92-year-old grandfather while he was taking a walk in Willowbrook on the Fourth of July.

Woman Arrested For Beating 92-Year-Old Willowbrook Man
92-year-old Rodolfo Rodriguez recovers at his Willowbrook, Calif., home after a violent beating that occurred on July 4, 2018. (CBS2)

Laquisha Jones, 30, was arrested Tuesday on one count of assault with a deadly weapon, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department reports. She was taken into custody at 7:30 p.m. in the area of 60th Street and Crenshaw Avenue.

At about 7:30 p.m. on July 4, 92-year-old Rodolfo Rodriguez was taking a walk at East 118th and Robin streets when he was at attacked.

Rodriguez's grandson, Eric Mendoza, told CBS2 that his grandfather was on the sidewalk when he accidentally bumped into a little girl while trying to walk around her. In response, a woman believed to be the girl's mother threw Rodriguez to the ground and started hitting him with her fist. She then began striking him with a brick.

"When I take the picture, she said, 'oh, he tried to touch my girl,'" the witness said. "I saw everything, this is a lie. And when the guys came, they hit him in the face, his body, everything."

The attackers fled as law enforcement was being called, the witness said. Deputies responded to Martin Luther King Medical Center, where Rodriguez was taken.

Rodriguez, who doesn't speak English, suffered broken ribs, a broken cheek bone and bruises all over his body. He has since been released from the hospital and is recovering at his home.

"I'm just overwhelmed how anybody can do this to a human being at all," Mendoza said. "He's 92 years of age. There's no harm that he meant for you to treat him the way you did."

In a news release Wednesday, the sheriff's department said that investigators do not believe the attack was a hate crime. Detectives are working to confirm the witness's claim that several men joined in on the assault. The brick used in the beating has not been found.

A GoFundMe page to raise money for Rodriguez's medical bills has already received more than a quarter-million dollars.

Jones, meanwhile, is being held on $200,000 bail. Anyone with information on the case should call LASD detectives at 323-568-4800.

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