Attacker beats woman to death with e-scooter as witness tries to help, Calif. cops say

An attacker beat a woman to death in Long Beach on Monday with an electric scooter, according to police in Southern California.

Police said the woman had been walking near the corner of Obispo Avenue and 64th Street in the Los Angeles County city around 12:30 p.m. when the man approached her and started to attack — and when a witness attempted to step in, the attacker picked up a scooter and used it to assault the woman, City News Service reports.

Authorities said the attacker ran away on foot, while the woman was pronounced dead at the crime scene, City News Service reports. KABC reports that a Bird electric scooter “from a nearby yard” was used in the attack.

Neighbor Lyn Griffith said that around the time of the attack she heard a loud noise but didn’t make much of it until she heard first responders swarm to the scene just houses away, according to the Long Beach Post, which described the area as a “quiet, single-family-home neighborhood.”

“I just heard a bang,” Griffith said, according to the newspaper.

Footage from a TV helicopter that flew overhead revealed that “a broken electric scooter could be seen on top of the woman’s body,” NBC Los Angeles reports.

Around 5 p.m., police said they had a person in custody matching the male suspect’s description, though he has not been named a suspect, NBC reports.

The suspect had been described as having facial hair and “wearing a dark hoodie, dark pants and red shoes,” KLTA reports. Police did not say if the attack was random or if there was a possible motive, according to the TV station.

“We are deeply saddened by this act of violence and our hearts and thoughts go out to the victim and her family,” a spokesperson for the scooter start-up Bird said in a statement, according to CBS. “We will work with local law enforcement to help with the investigation into this tragedy.”

This story was originally published May 13, 2019 at 6:00 PM.