Two charged in bodyguard’s stabbing

The victim works for alt-right figure, who calls it a hate crime.

Two men were charged with attempted murder Tuesday in the stabbing of a man who works as a bodyguard for a nationally known figure popular among the alt-right, prosecutors said.

Edgar Khodzhasaryan, 30, of Glendale and Arsen Bekverdyan, 31, of Burbank were charged with attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon in the stabbing after a dispute in a Santa Monica parking structure Saturday, said Sarah Ardalani, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

Tim Gionet, a popular alt-right Internet personality better known by his Twitter handle, @BakedAlaska, identified the victim as Antonio Foreman. Gionet did not witness the attack but said he spoke with the victim when he visited him in the hospital Monday.

Gionet, who said Foreman sometimes works for him as a bodyguard, told his more than 175,000 Twitter followers that the assault was politically or racially motivated. Foreman is an ardent supporter of President Trump and had been leaving an event in support of the president when he was attacked, Gionet said.

Law enforcement officials flatly dismissed the claim.

Prosecutors did not file a hate crime enhancement with the charges, Ardalani said. Lt. Saul Rodriguez, a Santa Monica Police Department spokesman, said the attack was spurred by an argument.

“There’s nothing here that would lead us to believe it was targeted or a hate crime or anything like that,” Rodriguez said.

Khodzhasaryan and Bekverdyan were leaving the parking structure and trying to call for a parking attendant to help them operate the gate about 11 p.m. Saturday when the victim “made a comment to the suspects which led to an argument,” Rodriguez said.

All three men got out of their vehicles and a fistfight erupted, Rodriguez said. The suspects fled a short time later, and the victim realized he had been stabbed, Rodriguez said. The victim, whom Rodriguez would not identify, was transported to a hospital in critical condition.

Khodzhasaryan and Bekverdyan were arrested a short time later while being treated for minor injuries at a hospital, Rodriguez said. Khodzhasaryan is also suspected of a probation violation.

Both were being held in lieu of $1 million bail and were scheduled to be arraigned in the Airport Courthouse on Tuesday afternoon, Ardalani said. It was not immediately clear who was representing them.

Gionet is a former BuzzFeed employee and popular right-wing Internet personality who has many fans among the alt-right movement, a loosely connected fraternity of white nationalists and other far-right groups.

Gionet told The Times that Foreman was stabbed nine times by two suspects who made anti-white comments either before or during the attack. Gionet said Foreman, whom he described as one of his best friends, was in stable condition at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles on Monday.

On Twitter, Gionet alleged one of the suspects yelled, “You’re getting the shank, white boy,” before the attack.