Crime & Safety

Man Killed on Venice Boardwalk

A transient man is stabbed to death Thursday evening near Westminster Avenue.

A man ended an argument with a friend Thursday evening by stabbing him to death on the Venice boardwalk.

The approximately 30-year-old victim, who was identified by bystanders only as Kevin, was pronounced dead at Marina Hospital on Lincoln Boulevard.

"It didn't look good," said the LAPD's Sgt. Vasquez, as the victim was transported from the scene. "He had a sucking wound on the chest."

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The attack took place just after sunset on the boardwalk near Westminster Avenue. The attacker fled, but a suspect was apprehended approximately a half-hour later, with a knife and blood on his clothes, at Main Street and Thornton Avenue, Vasquez said.

"He's what we call a 'K-Rocker', a younger transient," Vasquez said. Vasquez also said that the suspect, known as Billy, told police he knew the victim and that the two men had traveled together. No one at the scene could say what the argument was about.

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Two witnesses positively identified the apprehended suspect, Vasquez said.

Another bystander, who had been running on the boardwalk, said the suspect was about 5' 6", with curly blond hair. He was on his skateboard about a mile north of the scene when the runner heard him say, "I stabbed him badly. I stabbed him really badly."

There were about two dozen bystanders at the scene, as well as many other passing by, as the fire department performed CPR on the victim.

"It's stupid. It's a stupid thing," said Paul Rodell, who made the call to 911 and knew both the victim and his attacker. "We're brothers in the streets," he said of the victim.

Another man expressed his frustration with violence on the boardwalk. "I can't preach it to the young kids enough," he said. "We don't think like that, and we don't work like that."

"There are families out here trying to make a living," he said.


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