A homeless man attacked a California mayor and then punched a city council member in the head in broad daylight, a city council member said. Fox News Digital.
On August 22, Mayor Chris Branscome, City Councilman Dom Belza, Police Chief Christian Sachs and two council staffers walked the streets of Marysville, California, a city of about 12,000 people about 40 miles north of Sacramento.
“I thought I'd been hit by a car. It hit me really hard.”
Belza told Fox News that the group was inspecting a historic building that had recently been destroyed by fire when a homeless man suddenly approached and punched Mayor Branscome in the back for no apparent reason.
“We were standing on the sidewalk near the scene, having a casual conversation, when an individual was crossing the street, and as he reached over to the mayor, who had his back turned, he reached back, swung his arm around and struck the mayor squarely in the back,” Belza explained. New York Post.
“There was no communication, no argument. There was nothing that prompted the punch. It was a completely random act of violence.”
“My instincts kicked in,” Belza said, and he then chased the suspect, identified as 36-year-old Derek Hopkins, down the street.
When Belza caught up with the attacker, he turned and punched him, hitting him in the side of the head.
“I then confronted him, took him to the ground and held him until the police chief arrived. I held him until he was officially arrested,” Belza continued.
Hopkins, who is reportedly homeless, was charged with eight counts of assault on a public servant and elder abuse. His bail was set at $50,000, the Post reported. As of Wednesday afternoon, Hopkins was being held in the Yuba County Jail. record showed.
In a statement to The Blaze News, Belza acknowledged that he did not know the suspect personally but had heard that local police knew him.
Mayor Branscombe, 75, expressed gratitude to his younger companions for arresting the attacker who he believed to have used considerable force, saying: “I thought I'd been run over by a car. I was hit pretty hard.” Branscome recalled.“Next thing I know this guy is running past me and I'm yelling expletives at him.”
“He's a great guy,” Branscome said of Belza. Korea CRA“And so is the police chief. Dom took him down, but the chief was right behind him. They did a really good job.”
Belza said the incident was part of a larger problem across California: “This attack is the result of the soft-on-crime policies that the state of California has had over the last decade,” he told Fox News.
Belza also believes former California attorney general and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris has contributed to the state's decline in law and order, having previously lobbied hard in support of Proposition 47, which would have reclassified six minor offenses into misdemeanors.
“As attorney general, she called this bill the 'Safe Schools, Safe Communities Act.' What this bill actually did was reduce the penalties for retail theft, possession of hard drugs and drug trafficking to misdemeanors,” Belza told The Blaze News.
Belza also told The Blaze News that Proposition 36, which will be on the ballot this November, could be a solution to the rise in crime.
“The state has no choice but to put up with it. Instead of spending taxpayer money ($26 billion) on pointless homeless programs and bullet trains that go nowhere, if Proposition 36 passes in November, we will be forced to spend that money on crime,” he told The Blaze News.
“Situations like this prove that California is not a safe state and these small rural communities are no longer safe,” he added on Fox News.
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