Two Arrested in Violent Coffee Shop Attack

Two suspects were arrested today in connection with an attack on a deaf man and the theft of his laptop computer and other items, according to a report published today.

Daniel Allen Estremera and Dawone Anthony Finnell, both 22 and from Riverside, were already in custody when they were arrested in the case today, The Press-Enterprise reported.

Police received lots of tips stemming from video footage they released showing the robbers beating the man up.

• Watch the video below

Riverside Police Department Public Information Officer Chad Milby did not say what had linked the suspects to the beating, but the deaf man’s MacBook laptop was not recovered.

The attack occurred on May 19 outside the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf on Mission Inn Avenue, on the city’s Main Street pedestrian mall, just across the street from the Mission Inn Hotel & Spa.

According to police, the victim was relaxing outside the coffee shop about 1 a.m. when he was approached by a man in his 40s, who apparently attempted to engage the customer in conversation. Investigators believe the suspect was sizing up the victim and attempting to get a closer look at his computer.

The suspect left, and moments later, two men to whom he had been speaking strolled to the front of the coffeehouse and briefly scanned the immediate area before approaching the victim.

The security surveillance video shows one of the men abruptly turning and walking toward the victim’s table, snapping shut his laptop and then throwing several blows to the hapless man’s face, knocking him out of his seat and onto the ground.

The footage shows the victim struggling to grab onto his computer as he falls, but letting go amid a flurry of punches from the second suspect. The assailants initially fled with the laptop, but returned a second later to snatch more of the man’s possessions as he lay on the ground.

--City News Service