Caught On Camera: Couple Viciously Attack Laundromat Owner With Metal Broomstick

LOS FELIZ (CBSLA)  -- A laundromat owner who was beaten by a couple using a metal broomstick three weeks ago, spoke out Saturday about his ordeal and the attack.

CBS2/KCAL9 reporter Greg Mills spoke with Carl Swanson about the attack that was captured on security video inside and outside the Los Feliz establishment he owns with his wife, Kerry.

The fight, in fact, was captured from two angles.

The fight was two on one, with a man and a woman attacking Swanson.  The fight moved outside where the woman is shown striking Swanson with the broomstick.

"Saying she was gonna mess me up," says Swanson.

When it was all over, he was messed up.  And three weeks later, he's still nursing his wounds.

"Not only was she fighting me," Swanson says, "she bit me." He showed the teeth marks on his back to Mills, still visible.

What precipitated the fight? Swanson says, "because we kicked her out before."

He said he had a physical confrontation with the woman prior to this one.

The latest fight happened around 6 a.m. on a Sunday at Hillhurst Plaza at Hillhurst and Melbourne.

Business owners and residents in the area told Mills the area is dangerous between 5:30 and 10 a.m. most days but especially on weekends.

"Every morning I come to work at 6 a.m. and there's people lined up in front of it," says Hamlet Arutyunyan.

"It" in this case refers to a neighborhood bar -- many business owners and residents are wary of the people waiting outside for the bar to open.

"They have bothered me quite a few times," says Arutyunyan, "and a lot of my clients as well."

He added, "Most of them, they are really wasted and it's scary."

Business owners told Mills they've called police and spoken to the bar owner -- or tried to.

"I recommend him either to open late  -- or have a security [guard] in the mornings," says Arutyunyan.

He said he made that suggestion six months ago and nothing has changed.

Swanson said he's had several fights with people who were just hanging out but nothing like the one three weeks ago.

"They were drunk, on drugs, high. They were just vicious," he says.

Mills said he called the bar owner for comment but did not hear back.