Suspect ID'd in brutal beating of 15-year-old San Pedro student

ByABC7.com staff KABC logo
Wednesday, May 10, 2017
Evan Jimenez, 15, is shown in an undated photo in his baseball uniform.
Evan Jimenez, 15, is shown in an undated photo in his baseball uniform.
kabc-KABC

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Detectives have identified a suspect in the brutal beating of a 15-year-old high school baseball player who was assaulted as he walked home from San Pedro High School.

One of the two suspects was identified as Jaymel Williams, 20, of San Pedro. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said Williams was already in custody in a neighboring county on unrelated charges. Detectives interviewed him this week and they expect to present the case to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.

A second man is being described as a "person of interest" who has not been charged.

Evan Jimenez, 15, was walking home with a girl on March 30 when he was severely beaten by suspected gang members. He was walking by an alley near 2nd and Bandini streets when two men approached and asked him where he was from - in other words his gang affiliation. He said he wasn't with a gang, but they grabbed a liquor bottle and beat him severely.

A police sergeant at the time described the attack as "about as close as you can get to a homicide without it being one."

Jimenez was beaten unconscious and transported to a local hospital. Family members say he was in a medically-induced coma at one point. He has since been released and is continuing to recover.