The man who used a skateboard to bludgeon a sleeping homeless man to death in a North Park alley remains at large as the bizarre case grows colder by the day.
Nearly three months to the date of the seemingly unprovoked attack of Arthur Angelo, 55, police have few answers.
"It's a 'whodunit' case at this time," Lt. Todd Griffin, with the San Diego Police Department (SDPD), told NBC 7 Friday.
The attack happened on Sept. 16, just after 4:30 a.m. in a south alley off El Cajon Boulevard, behind a Jack in the Box restaurant.
Police said Angelo was sleeping when, suddenly, a man hit him several times on the head with a skateboard. Witnesses told investigators the suspect fled in a white Honda, leaving the victim critically injured on the street.
NBC 7 spoke to one North Park resident, who asked to remain anonymous, who said she heard the attack outside her home. The incident left her shaken.
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“I heard like a ‘Pop, pop,’ and then a car raced down the alley, and then I heard my husband screaming, ‘He’s bleeding!’ she recounted.
She said the victim was lying on the ground, covered in so much blood that his face was no longer visible.
“You could tell he was in a lot of pain. His beanie was covered in blood. His face was covered in blood. He was in shock,” she explained. “There was blood just going into his mouth, and he was kind of choking on it.”
She said ambulance soon arrived, taking the man away. Angelo was taken to a local hospital with serious injuries, where he later died.
Police said the suspect was described as a man between 19 and 26 years old, with shoulder-length hair. The 6-foot-tall man was wearing gray shorts.
No one else was harmed in the violent attack.
After the incident, several North Park residents told NBC 7 they've noticed an uptick in the homeless population in their community.
"More than anything, I’m just sad for the homeless because I’ve been noticing more of them coming through the area," said Hugo Angiano.
“You have a lot of homeless people now that are living in the neighborhood without services to support them. The homeless problem is a bad thing out here,” added resident Herbert Willis. “I think they need more police patrols.”
The anonymous witness who heard the crime said nobody deserves to be attacked on the streets -- homeless or not.
[G] San Diego's Unsolved Cold Cases
“I understand we have a really bad homeless thing in San Diego; it’s everywhere. But the man wasn’t bothering anybody. He was in his little cubby; he was sleeping,” she said. “He’s still a human being. No matter what the circumstances are, he’s still a human being.”
Griffin doesn't want to call the attack "random" but told NBC 7 there were no similar attacks before or after the incident. Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477.
