Suspect arrested in assault after Elton John concert

Couple suffered head injuries and a broken ankle in the attack at Dodger Stadium.

A suspect has been arrested on suspicion of assaulting a couple Thursday night after the Elton John concert at Dodger Stadium, according to a spokesperson for the Los Angeles Police Department.

The victims, reported to be in their 60s, were treated at a hospital, and both have been released, authorities said. Their identities and the extent of their injuries have not been disclosed.

The incident occurred after the concert as the parking lot was emptying, authorities said. Video of the attack has been posted on numerous news sites, including TMZ. It shows concertgoers watching from afar as a man in a blue shirt stands over a man who is seen falling backward onto the asphalt. Another man then seems to restrain the man in the blue shirt.

Speaking to CBS-LA, the man who was attacked said the assault began after someone punched the side mirror of his car.

“Who hit my mirror?” he remembered asking, and a woman, who took responsibility, then either struck him or tried to strike him before a man stepped up and started punching him.

The victim’s wife said she was in the car and saw in the rearview mirror “a pile of people on top of my husband.” When she tried to help, she said, someone grabbed her hair. She was thrown to the ground and lost consciousness.

When she came to, the assailants had scattered. She got her husband back into the car and drove to a hospital. They both sustained head injuries, and he suffered a broken ankle. He was released Saturday.

The woman also remembered that the assailants punched someone who tried to record the assault and damaged his phone.

Los Angeles police say the incident of “battery and vandalism” is under investigation. It is the most recent of a series of attacks that have occurred at sporting venues in Southern California over the years, including an assault in January at SoFi Stadium that left Daniel Luna, 40, with severe injuries.

Dodger Stadium has been the site of three especially vicious attacks. In 2011, paramedic Bryan Stow was beaten by two men and suffered a serious brain injury. In 2015, Ariel Auffant suffered traumatic brain injury when he was beaten near stadium gates, and in 2019, an attack left Rafael Reyna with “severe traumatic brain injury,” according to a lawsuit filed on behalf of Reyna against the Dodgers.

Wally Skalij Los Angeles Times ELTON JOHN performs at Dodger Stadium on Thursday. A man and woman possibly in their 60s were attacked when someone hit their car’s mirror in the parking lot. A bystander was punched too, the woman says.