Man Punches Party Magician, Chased by Parents Before Arrest in Pacific Palisades, Victims Report
A guy was detained on Saturday in Pacific Palisades on suspicion of assaulting three individuals, including a bleeding homeowner and a magician who was sucker-punched in the middle of a children’s birthday party, according to victims and witnesses.
Witnesses reported that the perpetrator was chased by irate parents before police could catch him.
The unusual run of strikes began at approximately 3:30 p.m. Saturday.
Bryan Stennett, 36, assaulted someone in the 400 block of Mesa Road, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. The victim’s identity and condition have not been disclosed.
About 15 minutes later, while driving home, Pacific Palisades resident Mike Deasy observed Stennett wandering close. Deasy told The Times that as he drove passed, he heard Stennett make a loud noise. When Deasy arrived home, he picked up a parcel that had been delivered to his porch with both hands, preventing him from closing the door behind him, and brought it inside.
When he returned to close the door, he mentioned that Stennett was in the entryway. Stennett inquired, “Is this your house?”
“I don’t remember what I said,” Deasy replied. The man then rushed him and hit him half a dozen times, he claimed. The moments leading up to the incident were captured on home surveillance footage. Before the attack, the suspect appeared to speak incoherently.
In an interview with ABC7, Deasy seems injured, with a bloodied forehead and bandaged and bruised limbs. Speaking to The Times on Monday, he said he was in “a lot of pain” but doctors had cleared him of a head injury.
Less than an hour later, at the Rustic Canyon Recreational Park, a quarter-mile off Mesa Road, local talent “California Joe, the Explorer Magician” was performing a pirate-themed magic performance for a 4-year-old’s birthday party in front of roughly 60 attendees.
According to Alec Egan, the birthday girl’s father, approximately 30 youngsters were sitting in a semicircle around a tree. When parents noticed a man walking behind the tree, they assumed he was a magician or had been invited to the celebration.
“He kinda looked like a dad who maybe took mushrooms,” said Egan, who was standing about 15 yards away from the tree with a baby.
Egan stated that he heard Stennett hurl a slur at the magician, whose actual name is Richard Ribuffo.
Ribuffo told The Times that when he saw Stennett, he assumed he was a parent trying to disrupt his routine for laughs, “which happens more than you think.”
He claimed he heard Stennett exclaim, “Turn the voices off” – Ribuffo believes he was referring to the sound from his microphone. Ribuffo stated that he appeared to be under the influence of narcotics or suffering from a mental health crisis.
Then, Egan claimed, Stennett dashed from behind the tree and sucker-punched the magician in the forehead, about three yards away from the youngsters.
“It caught all of us by surprise,” Ribuffo remarked. He claimed he was able to keep a safe distance between himself and his attacker, begging his parents to phone 911, until help arrived a second later – in the form of angry fathers.
Egan described it as a “red, primal dad feeling,” and he “football passed” the infant to his mother-in-law before sprinting for Stennett with two pals. Stennett ran, and the three pursued him along Sunset Boulevard before Egan returned to the park. The two other men continued their pursuit to the North Village district, he added, keeping Stennett in sight until police arrived to arrest him.
Ribuffo, who had bruises and swelling on his head from the attack, said he was granted a clean bill of health and attributed his cool reaction and control of the situation to his martial arts training. “Put your kids in karate, people,” suggested the instructor.
Both Egan and Ribuffo stated that the shock of the incident was due in part to its location in the park, which they described as safe.
“It was so out of nowhere,” Ribuffo remarked.
After the event, the children returned to the party and enjoyed themselves until it ended, according to Egan. He stated his daughter was fine, but he wanted to know what “assault” meant and if the man had been invited to the party. His daughter’s preschool wrote letters to parents offering guidance on how to explain the incident to their children, he claimed.
Egan stated of California Joe, “He took [the punch] like a champ.”
Ribuffo expressed disappointment that he was unable to conclude his act for the children. He attempted to give the parents a discount, but was paid the entire amount and even tipped, he claims. He is not furious with the individual who attacked him, he says, but he hopes to obtain the help he requires.
“He’s having a much worse day than I am right now,” he told me.
Stennett was arrested on charges of assault and put into the Van Nuys Jail. He was awaiting formal charges and had no court date set as of Monday evening.