Two 13-year-olds were sitting on a mall bench at the South Bay Galleria when a man walked up to the teens, stabbed them multiples times and then casually walked away, police said Friday.
The attack -- which occurred about 7:20 p.m. on Dec. 29 -- appeared to be random and unprovoked, police said publicly for the first time Friday.
The boy was stabbed six times and the girl was stabbed three times, police said. They were hospitalized with life-threatening injuries.
The two schoolmates were at the AMC movie complex for an afternoon showing of "Red Dawn," and a relative was inside the theater at the time of the attack, according to police.
Following surgeries, they were moved to the intensive care unit at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and were expected to survive, Sgt. Shawn Freeman said.
Also Friday, authorities released a composite sketch of the attacker (pictured, above) and a short video clip of the man walking in front of the theater (pictured, below).
"We need somebody that can say, 'Oh ya, that's me in this video. I was at the mall. I did see that guy. He passed right by me. He went down the escalator. He got into this car. He got on the bus,'" said Lt. Joe Hoffman of the Redondo Beach Police Department.
"But we need these people that were in the mall on Saturday night around 7:20 p.m. to come forward with any information, even if they don't think that it could be a huge piece of information," Hoffman said.
The victims are expected to be released from the hospital this week, police said.
Anyone with information about the case was asked to call Redondo Beach police at 310-937-6685.
