Man testifies that Stow’s beating was unprovoked
A paramedic who was at the game with the victim describes the attack by a violent fan in the parking lot.
A man attacked alongside Bryan Stow testified Friday that the beating in a Dodger Stadium parking lot was completely unprovoked and came at the hands of a violent local fan whom their group of San Francisco Giants fans had tried to ignore.
The witness, one of four paramedics who traveled together from the Bay Area to attend opening day last year, recalled how the fan, dressed in a white Dodger jersey, set upon them out of the blue as they crossed the lot, shoving Stow and punching another friend in the face.
The friend who had been hit “just turned and walked away” and Stow and the others followed, the witness, Alan “Jeff ” Bradford, told a judge hearing evidence against two men accused of the attack.
He said the friends reassured each other that “things could have been a lot worse if any of us tried to retaliate” and eventually stopped looking over their shoulders for the man.
Moments later, he said, they heard footsteps behind them and a second assault occurred. Bradford said that the man in the jersey punched him in the head, knocking him to the ground. He said he rose, threw a stack of souvenir beer cups at the man and a second assailant and then noticed Stow falling backward. He said Stow made no attempt to brace himself and appeared to be unconscious.
“It was just like a tree falling,” Bradford said.
Stow suffered a fractured skull in the March 31, 2011, attack. He has brain damage and is unable to walk or hold a conversation.
Bradford took the stand on the third day of a preliminary hearing to determine whether prosecutors have enough evidence to try Louie Sanchez, 30, and Marvin Norwood, 31. The Rialto men are charged with mayhem, assault and other felonies.
Like other witnesses in the proceeding thus far, Bradford was not able to identify Sanchez and Norwood as the assailants. He said he never got a good look at the second attacker — who prosecutors maintain was Norwood. He picked Sanchez out of a police lineup as “looking familiar” from the crime scene, but said he could not say for sure if he was the man who punched him.
Prosecutors have said the defendants incriminated each other in statements to police, and Sanchez’s sister, who allegedly drove the men from the stadium, testified before a grand jury investigating the incident.
Bradford said that he last saw the attackers running away from a crowd that had gathered around Stow. He said his medical training told him that his friend’s injury was “very serious.” Stow “was completely unresponsive” and had blood coming from his ears, Bradford testified.
Another companion is expected to take the stand next week.