SANTA MONICA—The Santa Monica Police Department announced on August 10th that a suspect was arrested after attacking another man who was found injured near the Santa Monica Public Library, Ocean Park Branch on August 9th.
The SMPD reported at 8:09 a.m., officers responded to the scene after a call of service for a Check the Status. An employee at the library informed authorities they attempted to wake up an individual who was near the front doors who may have been homeless and was badly injured.
The name of the victim has not yet been disclosed, but police indicated the 41-year-old male suffered from blunt force trauma to his face and had a swollen forehead. He was transported to a local hospital by ambulance and is listed in critical condition but is expected to recover.
At approximately 12:35 p.m., detectives spotted a person of interest loitering in the front of the library. Upon making contact with the individual, he became uncooperative and displayed threatening behavior. Additional officers arrived and deployed a Taser after the subject attempted to assault uniformed officers.
The suspect has been identified as Nathanael Roger Lavoie, 40, who was arrested and booked for attempted murder, felony battery on a police officer, giving a false name to a police officer, and resisting arrest.
Canyon News spoke to Lt. Erika Aklufi with the SMPD via email who stated:
“I don’t have anything for you about motive as this is still under investigation. Similarly, I cannot share if he has an outside criminal record. I can tell you that we had no contact with him prior to this incident; I understand that he was from out of state and may have only come to the area recently.”
Anyone with details on the incident or with information about the suspect is asked to contact the SMPD Investigations Division during business hours at (310) 458-8451 or the Watch Commander 24-hours at (310) 458-8427.
