Three suspects, including a Morgan Hill man, face felony charges following an investigation into a March 8 altercation on the patio of a busy restaurant in broad daylight in San Jose, authorities said.
Although at least one of the suspects may have uttered an antisemitic epithet toward the two male victims before initiating the brawl, and a police investigation report described the assault as a “hate crime,” Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen said the charges announced Monday do not include a hate crime allegation.
The case is still under investigation, Rosen’s office said.
Bruneil Henry Chamaki, 32, of Morgan Hill; Roma Akoyans, 20; and Ramon Akoyans, 18, surrendered to the San Jose Police Department on March 16, according to a press release from the DA’s office. All three face a felony charge of assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury. Chamaki faces an additional charge of misdemeanor battery.
They are scheduled to be arraigned on the charges on May 12 at the Hall of Justice in San Jose.
Chamaki is a corporate attorney in the Bay Area, according to the State Bar of California’s website and police reports. The Akoyans’s are siblings and residents of San Jose.
A bystander’s video of the assault at Augustine Restaurant at Santana Row has circulated across social media since the March 8 incident. San Jose Police used that video as well as camera footage from Augustine Restaurant and a nearby parking garage to help build the case against the suspects.
The incident and the charges “reflect the gravity of a violent assault in public between strangers, and the dangerousness of hitting and kicking someone while they are down,” the DA’s office said.
Rosen said in a statement, “We won’t tolerate pummeling a victim on the ground in front of a restaurant or anywhere, and we will hold the perpetrators fully accountable. Our public spaces have to be safe for all to enjoy without fear.”
Two victims, identified as Jewish in police reports, walked up to the front door seeking to get a table at Augustine Restaurant, 377 Santana Row, about 3:30pm March 8, according to police reports. The victims were speaking to each other in Hebrew while standing close to the sidewalk just outside the restaurant’s front entrance.
The suspects walked behind the victims and heard them speaking in Hebrew. One of the suspects said, “F— Jews,” and all three defendants began physically assaulting the victims, according to the police report.
The suspects punched and kicked the victims multiple times, for about 20 seconds, police said. The attackers fled the scene. A witness told police that one of the suspects yelled “Don’t f— with Iran” while running away.
The victims did not know the suspects before the assault, according to police.
Security video images from a Santana Row parking garage show the suspects running toward a parked Tesla and entering the car immediately after the assault. The Tesla was registered to Chamaki, police said.
The victims suffered injuries including head pain, cuts and bruises, authorities said. They were initially uncooperative with police at the scene.
“We applaud the San Jose Police Department for the swift and thorough way they have investigated this crime, and we thank the members of the public who have come forward to provide information about it,” says the DA’s press release.
