A man was arrested Saturday in Pacific Palisades on suspicion of assaulting three people — including a homeowner who was left bloodied and a magician who was sucker-punched in the middle of a children’s birthday party, according to victims and witnesses.
Before police could apprehend him, the suspect was chased by angry parents, witnesses said.
The bizarre string of attacks started around 3:30 p.m. Saturday.
Bryan Stennett, 36, assaulted an individual in the 400 block of Mesa Road, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. That victim’s identity and condition have not been released.
About 15 minutes later, as he was driving home, Pacific Palisades homeowner Mike Deasy told The Times that he noticed Stennett walking nearby. As Deasy drove past, he heard Stennett make a loud noise, he said. When Deasy got home, he picked up a package that had been delivered to his porch — with both hands, so he couldn’t close the door behind him — and put it inside.
When he returned to close the door, he said, Stennett was in the doorway. Stennett asked him, “Is this your house?”
“I don’t remember what I said,” Deasy said. The man then rushed him and punched him half a dozen times, he said. The moments leading up to the attack were caught on home surveillance video. The suspect appears to speak incoherently before attacking.
In an interview with ABC7, Deasy appears battered, with a bloody forehead and bandaged and bruised arms. Speaking Monday with The Times, he said he was in “a lot of pain” but had been cleared of a head injury by doctors.
Less than an hour later and a quarter of a mile away from Mesa Road, at the Rustic Canyon Recreational Park, local performer “California Joe, the Explorer Magician” was performing a pirate-themed magic act for a 4-year-old’s birthday party in front of about 60 guests.
About 30 children were sitting in a semi-circle around a tree, said Alec Egan, the birthday girl’s father. When parents saw a man walking behind the tree, they thought he might be part of the magician’s act, or at least someone invited to the party.
“He kinda looked like a dad who maybe took mushrooms,” said Egan, who was standing about 15 yards from the tree holding an infant.
Egan said he heard Stennett yell a slur at the magician, whose real name is Richard Ribuffo.
Ribuffo told The Times he saw Stennett and thought the man was a parent trying to do something disruptive to his routine to be funny, “which happens more than you think.”
He said he heard Stennett yell, “Turn the voices off” — Ribuffo thinks he may have been referring to the sound from his microphone. He appeared to be under the influence of drugs or having a mental health crisis, Ribuffo said.
Then, Egan said, Stennett ran from behind the tree and sucker-punched the magician in the forehead, about three yards away from the children.
“It caught all of us by surprise,” Ribuffo said. He said he was able to keep distance between himself and his attacker, asking for parents to call 911, until help arrived a moment later — in the form of angry fathers.
Describing it as a “red, primal dad feeling,” Egan said he “football passed” the infant to his mother-in-law and took off running toward Stennett with two of his friends. Stennett fled, and the three chased him to Sunset Boulevard before Egan returned to the park. The two other men continued the pursuit to the North Village neighborhood, he said, keeping Stennett in view until police arrived to arrest him.
Ribuffo, who suffered bruises and swelling on his head from the attack, said he was given a clean bill of health but credited his calm reaction and control of the situation to his study of martial arts. “Put your kids in karate, people,” he said.
Both Egan and Ribuffo said the shock of the attack stemmed partly from its setting in the park, which both described as safe.
“It was so out of nowhere,” Ribuffo said.
The children returned to the party after the incident and had fun until its scheduled end, Egan said. His daughter is fine, he said, but asked what “assault” was and whether the man had been invited to the party. His daughter’s preschool sent letters to parents with advice on how to explain the incident to their kids, he said.
As for California Joe, Egan said, “He took [the punch] like a champ.”
Ribuffo said he was disappointed he was unable to finish his show for the children. He tried to give the parents a discount but was paid the full amount and even tipped, he said. He is not angry at the man who attacked him, he said, but hopes he gets the help that he needs.
“He’s having a much worse day than I am right now,” he said.
Stennett was arrested on suspicion of assault and booked into the Van Nuys jail awaiting formal charges, with no court date set as of Monday evening.
