A 26-year-old Algerian knocked a man to the ground in Valencia and repeatedly jumped on his head while he lay unconscious in the street. The victim is in a coma. The attacker was in Spain illegally, had an extensive criminal record, and was sleeping in a shed in the neighbourhood.
The assault took place on Friday evening, shortly before 9 p.m., at the junction of Calle Ingeniero José Sirera and Pío IX in the San Marcelino district of Valencia.
The victim is a 47-year-old man. One arm was in a cast. He is awaiting a kidney and pancreas transplant.
Neighbours filmed what happened. The footage shows the attacker knocking the man to the ground with a single punch. He then continued to punch and kick him while he was lying on the ground. According to El Debate, the video shows him repeatedly jumping on the victim’s head.
The man lost consciousness. The attack did not stop.
Witnesses attempted to intervene. According to information provided by police to Las Provincias, the 26-year-old turned towards them:
“Get away from here, or you’ll end up like him.”
Watch the video for yourself:
A SAMU ambulance transported the man to Hospital Doctor Peset. He was admitted to the intensive care unit in a coma, with severe head injuries and injuries across his body.
According to the sources, there are conflicting accounts of what triggered the violence, but no source claims that the victim did anything to provoke the attacker.
El Debate writes that the 26-year-old was behaving disruptively in the street, that several neighbours reprimanded him, and that the victim was one of them.
Las Provincias cites police sources stating that he attacked a passer-by after being reprimanded by neighbours — meaning that the victim was not necessarily among those who confronted him.
Levante-EMV writes that the two men did not know each other, and that the victim was on his way home after visiting his mother when he encountered the attacker.
All three accounts have one thing in common: the man with the arm in a cast had no opportunity to defend himself.
Illegal residence, extensive criminal record
Police in Valencia arrested the 26-year-old shortly afterwards, near the scene of the attack. Witnesses identified him without hesitation.
His name is Said. He is Algerian. He was residing illegally in Spain and had no valid identity documents. He was living in a shed near the scene of the attack.
Police established that his criminal record was extensive — strikingly extensive, given how short a time he had been in the country. According to OKDiario, he was responsible for several previous violent incidents and robberies in the same neighbourhood.
On Sunday afternoon, Judge Tarodo Ortí ordered that he be remanded in custody without bail on suspicion of attempted murder.
The judge cited the seriousness of the victim’s injuries and the high risk that the suspect might abscond. The man had neither valid identity documents nor a fixed address.