LOS ANGELES - A 19-year-old homeless man accused of slashing the faces of nine people while riding past them on a bicycle in the South Los Angeles area was charged today with 10 felony counts.
Lenrey Briones is scheduled to be arraigned in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom April 24 on seven counts of aggravated mayhem, two counts of attempted aggravated mayhem and a single count of second-degree robbery in connection with the series of random knife attacks.
The injuries allegedly caused permanent disfigurement to seven of the victims, prosecutors said.
Briones is also charged with trying to take a purse belonging to one of the alleged victims, according to prosecutors.
He was detained about 1:45 p.m. Wednesday near a homeless camp in the 10900 block of Wilmington Avenue in Watts, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. Officers found a bike nearby that is believed to be the one used in the alleged attacks.
LAPD Some of the victims suffered "significant cuttings" in what Newton Station Lt. Raul Jovell called "life-changing events and incidents."
One woman needed 20 stitches to treat her injury and a 13-year-old boy was cut in an attack on Monday, according to Jovell.
LAPD Two of the attacks occurred Monday in unincorporated Florence near South Los Angeles, the first about 8:40 a.m. near Florence Avenue and Avalon Boulevard, police said.
"The victim was standing on the sidewalk near the bus stop," according to a police statement. "The unknown suspect approached the victim on his bicycle and slashed at the victim as he rode past him with an unknown-type edged weapon, causing severe injury to his face."
About 15 minutes later, a woman was slashed in the face near Avalon Boulevard and 59th Place.
LAPD A man was slashed in the face by a man on a bicycle near Avalon Boulevard and 59th Street about 7:30 a.m. March 20.
A person was severely injured when slashed in the face in South Gate about 11 a.m. March 27.
Further details about the other attacks were not immediately available.
(CNS)