Caught On Video: Brave Sisters Give Carjacker Tag-Team Beatdown During Bizarre Nail Salon Attack
VAN NUYS (CBSLA) — A Chatsworth man who police say carjacked a vehicle and then attacked three women in a Sherman Oaks nail salon was in custody Thursday.
Gustavo Aranda, 25, was arrested about 10 a.m. Wednesday at the salon in the 13600 block of Burbank Boulevard, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
Police say the carjacking happened just before 8:30 a.m. Wednesday on the 14400 block of Gilmore Street. Nearly an hour and a half later, Aranda entered the nail salon, where police said he began "hitting three women inside for no reason."
Video of the incident appears to show Aranda swinging a chair and attacking the victims until employees from a neighboring business arrived and restrained him.
Two of the women, sisters, immediately fought back, hitting Aranda with chairs as he attacked them, video from a security camera shows.
"With his body force, he punched us," Virginia Martinez Bojorquez said through an interpreter.
"There was no time to be scared," said her sister Imelda.
At one point, the sisters seemed to take turns beating Aranda while he was on the ground.
"We alternated. When he was on top of her, I came and fought with him to rescue her," Bojorquez recalled. "And when he turned his attention to me and started attacking me, she came to my aid."
A salon worker ran out of the shop to ask for help, finding good Samaritan Rene Solis and several other men.
"The other words that came out of her mouth was, 'he's gonna kill them,'" said Solis. "They were battling each other with chairs and stuff, so by the time I got real, real in the battle, he just stopped... At that same time, he was just mumbling, you know, 'Just kill me now.'"
"I saw how badly wounded he was, so I just looked over, and I was like, 'Wow, I'm impressed,'" Solis chuckled.
The sisters were celebrating Bojorquez's birthday by getting manicures and pedicures Wednesday morning.
The melee left Bojorquez covered in bruises.
Aranda matched the description of a person who stole 2007 Toyota 4Runner by force that morning. He was booked on suspicion of carjacking, and was being held on $150,000 bail.
Anyone with info was asked to contact police at (818) 374-0081, or (877) LAPD-247.
(© Copyright 2018 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)
