LAPD probes purported video of beaten Giants fan
LOS ANGELES - Police Monday were examining a video that purportedly shows Bryan Stow confronted by a Los Angeles Dodgers fan in the bleachers on opening day shortly before he was beaten and left brain-damaged in the parking lot of Dodger Stadium.
The few seconds of grainy video posted Monday by TMZ.com show a man in a blue Dodgers hat and jersey pointing a finger at someone in a black and orange shirt who resembles Stow. The man is a foot or two away. The hands of the man in the black shirt are up defensively or placatingly. The Dodgers fan then curses in Spanish and turns away.
The confrontation "appears to be the tail end of a verbal confrontation," said TMZ.com, which declined to discuss how it obtained the video or whether it had verified that the video was real and was taken at March 31 season opener.
"We do not release information on our sources," TMZ.com publicist Casey Carver said an email.
Stow, a 42-year-old Santa Cruz paramedic and father of two, was wearing Giants apparel at the March 31 game. Police said that after the game, two men attacked Stow in the stadium parking lot. He was knocked down, beaten and left in critical condition with head injuries.
Doctors at San Francisco General Hospital announced last week that his condition had been upgraded to serious but his prospects of recovery are uncertain.
Police have said that Giovanni Ramirez, 31, is the main suspect in Stow's beating. Ramirez was arrested in May and recently was sent back to prison for 10 months for a parole violation involving access to a gun.
However, he has not been charged in connection with Stow's beating and his lawyers contend that he was not at Dodger Stadium that night.
TMZ.com said the Dodger fan in the video is not Ramirez.
"Detectives are currently looking at the video to determine whether or not it's going to be helpful to the investigation and the investigation is currently ongoing," police spokeswoman Jacquelyn Abad said.