SALINAS, Calif.- We have new information on the homeless man, known as Ramon, beat into a coma in Oldtown Salinas in October. Salinas Police said he walked around town for two days with those major injuries before someone called police. Ramon was flown to a San Jose hospital and then fell into a coma. But he has since come out of it and is healing.
Two brothers and the owners of the XL Grindhouse restaurant in Oldtown, Robert and James DeLeon, are accused of beating the man. Both have pleaded not guilty to all charges of attempted murder and assault.
In light of the beating and the charges against the brothers, the Center for Investigative Action went to work, to find out if the Oldtown Salinas Association's effort to make streets safer is working for business owners.
One security guard, six patrols a day, for 15 minutes at a time. That's what Oldtown Salinas Association said it gets for paying a local security guard company $200 a month to keep the homeless problem at bay.
"We cant solve homelessness, but we can solve the problems that affect the homeless and the merchants," said Brian Higgins, with Oldtown Salinas Association.
Licensed guards, some armed with a Taser or a k-9, are on-call 24/7. But Andrew Greiner with ESA International said it's not regular.
"There's no exact shift, we do random patrols. So we may be here between 1:00pm and 3:00pm one day or between 5:00pm and 6:00pm another day," Greiner said.
But in light of the beating of a well-known and well-liked homeless man in Oldtown, some want to know if the patrols are enough. Police said a female friend found the man stumbling around, very disoriented around the Salinas Transit Center. They said that was the first time anyone called for help-two days after the incident happened. I asked the guard company how Ramon's injuries went unnoticed for so long.
"If we were to come across him in that situation, we obviously would've helped him. However none of our officers did see him," Greiner said.
The company sid the $200 is a highly discounted rate and tracking the homeless isn't easy.
"They will kind of spread around. So you may find them one place one day, two hours later they may be somewhere else," Greiner said.
So I wanted to find out how satisfied business owners are with the guard service they pay for through association fees.
"Everytime we have a problem, we call them and they're here, like in minutes," said Tony's Jewelry owner Tony Delatorre.
And in response to the two days Ramon's beating went unreported?
"I just don't see a whole lot that more security would've been able to prevent a situation like that. I mean, maybe their presence would have deterred it," said Monterey Coast Brewery manager Kye Ricks.
The Oldtown Salinas Association said it's board members will officially discuss Ramon's beating for the first time, with the community next month. A special meeting will be held on December 13th at 5:30pm, at City Hall.
