Two teen e-bikers charged with assault in Hermosa Beach

Charges have been filed against two teens who were arrested after surveillance cameras recorded a group of boys on e-bikes attacking a man near the Hermosa Beach Pier until he was knocked unconscious, police said.

- By Ciara HARTER

The teens were each charged with one felony count of assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury, according to the L.A. County district attorney’s office.

They are accused of being the primary assailants in the Nov. 21 attack on a 57-year-old resident in an alleyway near the pier and were arrested on Nov. 26, according to the Hermosa Beach Police Department.

Attorney J. Patrick Carey, who is representing one of the teens, said that the minors were responding to violence by an adult against their 14-year-old friend and that the video circulating of the attack is not a fair representation of all that transpired.

"The evidence will show that the minors reacted when an adult man aggressively confronted and attacked their friend," he said in a statement to The Times. "Their conduct occurred in direct response to that aggression and in an effort to protect him."

Attorney Glen T. Jonas, who is representing the other teen, said in a statement that the "alleged victim, a heavily intoxicated adult, was in fact the initial aggressor that assaulted young minors."