A 14-year-old boy set out for an evening ride on the San Francisquito Creek Trail expecting nothing more than a quick spin with a friend. Instead, he ended the night bruised, shaken and clutching video of a stranger stomping on his bike and threatening to kill him.
The teen, who asked not to be identified, told KTLA he and a friend were riding their e-bikes at dusk on Sept. 17 when they nearly collided with a man pedaling ahead of them in the dark. Startled, one of the boys let out a scream before the pair steered around him and continued down the path.
They thought the encounter was over. Instead, the man gave chase.
Moments later, the boy said, the cyclist caught up and launched into a violent attack. “While he was on top of me he just said he was going to kill me,” the teen recalled. In one hand, the man clutched a knife. With the other, he swung punches, knocking the boy’s helmet loose and sending him to the ground.
Cellphone video recorded by the teen captures part of the assault, showing the attacker stomping on the e-bike, cutting cables and slashing the tires as the boy cries out for help. “He broke my helmet and everything,” the teen can be heard saying.
The boy escaped with scrapes and bruises but no broken bones or serious head trauma — a fact his mother, Lani, credits to luck. “We were fortunate that he didn’t kill our kid,” she said, still rattled by the attack.
Deputies with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department described the suspect as a white man in his 30s or 40s, muscular, with a mustache, riding an orange bicycle. As of Friday, the man remained at large.
Anyone with information is urged to contact the Sheriff’s Santa Clarita Valley Station.
Chris Wolfe contributed to this report.
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