Scott Sakajian was arrested after a video showed him slapping Alfredo Morales, a 10-year-old with autism in the green shirt, after he bent the emblem on his Mercedes, cops say. (Left photo: GoFundMe; Right photo: RMG News)
Cops in California arrested a man accused of slapping a 10-year-old boy with autism in a viral video that has sparked outrage on social media.
The Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office on Tuesday charged Scott Sakajian with willful cruelty to a child and battery on a person. The incident happened on July 3 near Laurel Canyon Boulevard and Osborne Street in the Pacoima neighborhood of Los Angeles. Alfredo Morales, 10, and his older sister were crossing the street when Alfredo stopped to touch the emblem on a stopped Mercedes-Benz, bending it, before walking away.
According to local CW affiliate KTLA, the driver later identified as Sakajian turned the car around and followed Alfredo and his sister to a bus stop. He pulled over and got out of his car. Alfredo’s sister is seen and heard on the video apologizing and explaining in Spanish that her brother has autism and didn’t mean any harm — but Sakajian apparently wasn’t having any of it. That’s when the video allegedly showed Sakajian slapping Alfredo.
“I was traumatized, I was shaking,” the woman who took the video told the outlet. “I said, ‘Hey sir, stop! You can’t be doing that.””
Somehow people identified Sakajian as the driver a couple days after the incident, prompting some residents to show up to his house to confront him, KTLA reported. Police were dispatched to the home because of threats, the outlet said.
There was a further outpouring of support after people learned the family was homeless and living in a broken-down truck in a park. A GoFundMe has netted the family about $100,000.
More on Law&Crime: ‘They took my trust and spit on it’: School bus aide allegedly knocked out tooth, fractured bones of nonverbal students
“Alfredo was the victim of a grown man slapping him at the bus stop,” the fundraiser says. “He has severe autism and his family is in desperate need of help.”
Community members also held a separate fundraiser for the family. The funds have allowed the family to move into temporary housing.
Sakajian has a court date scheduled for Aug. 2.
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
