A good Samaritan was savagely beaten — and nearly died — while cleaning garbage from the famed Santa Monica beach over the weekend.
Venice native Josey Peters, who has collected rubbish from the sand for nearly two decades, was attacked by a young man wearing all black “like a ninja” around 6:30 p.m. Saturday, he told KTLA.
“He could’ve killed me, his first strike was on my temple, on the side of my head and it knocked me unconscious,” Peters said. “He could’ve easily killed me doing that.”
Peters, who has received acclaim from publications like the Los Angeles Times for his good deeds, was working near a lifeguard tower when the attacker came up beside him and attacked without warning.
“He did have what looked like a big nose piercing kind of poking through his face mask. He looked unusual, but there’s a lot of unusual people around here. It doesn’t bother me,” Peters said.
“All of a sudden, I was unconscious, I was on the ground. This guy hit me on the side of the head with a martial arts-type staff.”
Witnesses later told Peters that the stranger decked out in black repeatedly beat him before fleeing the scene.
A lifeguard on duty who heard the emergency call on the radio told KTLA that the assailant used a bat in the unprovoked attack.
Peters suffered serious injuries from the beating, including broken and bruised ribs, a broken collarbone, bruises on the left side of his face and a concussion.
“This guy wasn’t ranting, he wasn’t raving, he wasn’t out of his mind,” he said, pondering why he was targeted.
Meanwhile, Peters remains determined to continue keeping the beach clean.
“I am devoted to the environment and this is not going to scare me away from the beach,” he said. “I will be more aware.”
Santa Monica police are investigating the incident.
