Family Of Stabbed Teen Calls South Bay Galleria 'Cesspool For Crime'
REDONDO BEACH (CBSLA.com) — The parents of a 13-year-old boy who was stabbed at a Redondo Beach mall filed a lawsuit Monday claiming negligence and poor security led to the attack.
KNX 1070's John Brooks reports Richard and Maria Williams want the South Bay Galleria cleaned up once and for all after a string of hundreds of criminal incidents.
Family Of Stabbed Teen Calls South Bay Galleria 'Cesspool Of Crime'
The Dec. 29 attack against their son Ricky and another teen on the third level of the mall left both victims with a total of nine stab wounds to the chest. They were both hospitalized in stable condition and released days later.
The suspect remains at large after police released a composite sketch and asked the public to come forward with any information.
Maria Williams said she and her husband would have never allowed their son to go to the South Bay Galleria if she had known there were over 120 criminal incidents at the mall.
"I had no prior knowledge," Maria said. "We were under the assumption that we were leaving our son in a safe place."
The victim's father, Richard, said a glaring lack of video surveillance on the property was at least partly to blame.
"I'm dumbfounded at the lack of surveillance," he said. "Had I known it was a cesspool for crime...we had no idea."
The lawsuit calls on Galleria mall owner, Forest City Enterprise, Inc., and Andrews International, the mall's security company, to pay for Ricky's medical expenses - which now top $300,000 - as well as upgrade security measures at the mall.
There was no immediate response to a request for comment from Forest City Enterprise on the lawsuit.
A $25,000 reward has been offered for any information leading to an arrest of the suspect, who was described by police as a Black male between 40-50 years of age, tall with a medium build and was last seen wearing a fatigue-type jacket, blue jeans, a black T-shirt and a dark-colored beanie. He had a possibly graying beard and mustache, authorities said.
Anyone with more information about the incident is asked to call the Redondo Beach Police Department tipline at (310) 937-6685 or email any tips to crimetips@redondo.org.
