An 82-year-old Latino man with COVID-19 was beaten to death by a fellow patient with an oxygen tank at a hospital last week in Lancaster, California.
The victim, was being treated for a COVID-19 infection in a two-person room with suspect Jesse Martinez, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
Martinez, 37, reportedly became upset when the victim, a Catholic, started to pray. [1] He then struck his octogenarian roommate with an oxygen tank just before 10 a.m. Thursday.
The victim died the following morning from his injuries. According to the Sheriff’s Department, the two men did not know each other.
Martinez was arrested at the scene after hospital staff detained him, according to Lt. Brandon Dean, a spokesman with the Sheriff’s Department. Martinez was charged with murder, with an enhancement for elder abuse and religion-motivated hate crime.