A family says they want a group of boys captured in a video brutally attacking their 16-year-old son at a Chula Vista restaurant to be held responsible.
The South Bay teenager was beaten by about ten teenaged boys at the Cotixan Mexican and Seafood restaurant in Chula Vista Thursday afternoon, according to Chula Vista Police Department Lt. John Autolino.
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In a video that circulated on social media over the weekend, the group of mostly teenage boys can be seen punching, kicking and, at one point, throwing a chair onto the teenager's head. As he fell to the floor, the group continued to beat him up.
Autolino said the teen was sitting in the restaurant with his girlfriend when the large group came in and challenged him to a fight.
The victim's father said it appeared the group wanted to kill his son.
"At one time it was six, then eight, then ten people starting kicking my son. They threw chairs at him," Margarito Martin-Torres said.
CVPD said the teen sustained several injuries, including swelling to his face and body and shoe impressions on his face.
"He fractured his arm, almost like someone hit him with a bat over and over on the same spot and shattered it," Martin-Torres said. "But I think God was on his side because he stood up."
NBC 7 talked with the victim's girlfriend who recorded the fight. She said the brawl was the result of an argument that started a month ago on Snapchat when the victim stood up for a friend that was being bullied.
"My son had said (on Snapchat) 'Hey, stop, leave her alone, stop doing this,'" Martin-Torres said.
Martin-Torres said he was appalled the restaurant did not try to stop the fight or intervene in any way. However, the restaurant said employees did call police and try to help as soon as they were aware of the confrontation.
Cotixan's owner, Marlon Espinosa, said he wasn't there when the fight took place but said his employees did step up to stop it. He said his employee working the cash register yelled out to a cook in the back who ran out to the dining area and confronted the group.
Espinosa said he reached out to the victim and his family to offer an apology. He also said he wants to ensure this type of incident never happens again, and he plans on fixing his surveillance system and implementing anti-bullying response protocol for his employees.
"We treat those kids as if they were our family," he said. "I treat them as if they were my kids, my own kids. I see them every day. I know what they like to order, who are friends."
Espinosa said he and his employees are cooperating with investigators.
CVPD said they are investigating this as an assault with a deadly weapon and a robbery because the victim reported his iPhone and Apple Watch were stolen during the fight.