Bejado’s barbershop remains closed a week after Frank Patrick Aitasi entered the establishment and allegedly hit the shop owner from behind and robbing her in broad daylight on Thanksgiving Day.
Court documents state that the victim knew her attacker and that she had previously cut his hair. The victim told police on the day of the robbery that she had asked him if he needed a haircut, but he said he was okay. It was when she turned her back that she says he struck her on the head. He then allegedly dragged, punched, kicked and stomped her while she was on the ground.
Police say the victim was found on the barbershop’s floor bleeding from her forehead and seemingly unconscious with notable swelling to her face and redness around her neck and back.
At the scene, officers spoke with a witness who was walking by at the shop when he heard a scream from a woman yelling for help. The witness told police that he peaked into the shop through the doorway and saw Aitasi standing over the woman who was on the floor. Police say when Aitasi saw the witness he shut the door and locked it.
It was then that the victim says Aitasi beat her again, this time taking hair clippers and wrapping the electric cord around her neck, causing her to lose consciousness for a second time.
The witness then called the police, telling them that he saw Aitasi emerge from the store and leave on a bicycle.
But it appears that Aitasi was scoping out the shop prior to carrying out the crime as another witness told police that he saw Aitasi prior to the robbery standing against the shop’s window. Court documents state that Aitasi made off with $3,000 as well as the victim’s purse.
Aitasi was arrested by police early Tuesday morning, after the victim and a witness positively identified him through a photo line-up. He has spent almost two days in jail and was brought before Magistrate Judge Jonathan Quan this afternoon to answer to the charges.
Aitasi was charged with first-degree robbery, and theft of property both with the special allegation of vulnerable victim, as well as felonious restraint and strangulation.
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