BALTIMORE, Md. — A man is in custody after police say surveillance video captured him beating two women with a cinder block as they tried closing down their West Baltimore liquor store Sunday night.
Police say it happened just before midnight at Wonderland Liquors in the 2000 block of Pennsylvania Avenue.
The camera footage starts off with one of the female owners trying to close down for the night.
A man believed to be Daryl Doles then shows up armed with a cinder block and tries to force his way into the store.
The woman struggles to block him from entering and is ultimately overpowered, knocked to the ground, and beaten repeatedly with the cinder block.
Seconds later, the woman's sister who also works at the shop is seen being assaulted as she tries unsuccessfully to disarm the suspect.
The other woman somehow is able to get back to her feet and help out but not before getting struck several more times in the face.
Eventually, the sisters are able to fend the suspect off enough to get him out of the store where the fight continues for another minute and a half or so, out of the camera's view.
In the end, the women return inside the store bloodied.
According to an online post from the family, both women were taken to the hospital and later discharged. One reportedly received several stitches in her head and suffered bruising to the eyes. A GoFundMe has been set up to help with medical costs.
As for Doles, officers arrested him a few blocks away. He now faces multiple counts of aggravated assault.
Robert Hur, the former United States Attorney for the District of Maryland is representing the victims through a new pro-bono initiative, called the Alliance for Asian American Justice.
"We will continue to work with law enforcement to ensure that the attacker is brought to justice. While we are still learning the facts, one thing is clear, such shocking acts of violence against fellow members of our neighborhoods cannot go on," said Hur. "The family is grateful for the outpouring of sympathy and support. I urge everyone to do all we can to raise awareness and to speak out against bias, hate, and violence against any members of our city and community, including Asian Americans."
The incident also caught the attention of Governor Larry Hogan, who recently tapped Hur to head up the newly formed Hate Crimes Task Force.
"I saw [the video] before it hit the news, my daughter shared it with me from her friend. I was outraged it's just another example of these violent outbursts and attacks on Asians all across the country," said Hogan. "It was pretty hard to watch with the two older women being smashed in the head with a brick or cinder block."
Hogan says the state police are now involved in the investigation and that he's already spoken to Hur about the incident.
"We're gonna get to the bottom of this, we already have state police working in conjunction with the city to investigate. I've already talked to Rob Hur, who's headin up our hate crimes task force. I'm sure we're gonna hear more about this, it's probably going to get a lot more attention," said Hogan.
The video can be watched below, but please be warned it is graphic:
This story was originally published by Ryan Dickstein at WMAR.
