A man was fatally injured Tuesday when he was allegedly hit on the head with a skateboard during a confrontation with a 20-year-old man inside a Santa Ana Starbucks.
The confrontation occurred just after 12:30 p.m. at 3345 S. Bristol St., said Cpl. Anthony Bertagna of the Santa Ana Police Department.
The injured man was taken to Orange County Global Medical Center where he was pronounced dead on arrival, Bertagna said.
Witnesses said earlier they saw the deceased man, believed to be in his 50s, harrasing people in the parking lot outside Starbucks. He then allegedly walked into the store and approached the younger man who was seated at a table. The older man made a comment and then advanced aggressively toward the younger man, who quickly stood and struck the older man in the head with a skateboard, witnesses said.
The man voluntarily went to the police station for questioning and was released "pending the investigation." Detectives said he is cooperating with authorities.
"At this point we don't know if there was a relationship between the two of them, but something led to a verbal altercation, which led to a physical altercation,'' Bertagna said. ``We do not know if it was done in self-defense or it was an act of aggression. That's what the detectives were looking into.''
Police said the case is being handled as a death investigation.
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Hetty Chang and City News Service contributed to this report.
