Two men indicted in attack on Turkish restaurant in Beverly Hills Leila Miller
A federal grand jury has indicted two men for allegedly assaulting and threatening five people at a Turkish restaurant in Beverly Hills while shouting anti-Turkish slurs.
Harutyun Harry Chalikyan, 23, of Tujunga, and William Stepanyan, 23, of Glendale, were named in an indictment unsealed Tuesday that charged them with one count of conspiracy and five counts of committing hate crimes.
Both defendants, prosecutors said, are Armenian American. The attack last fall came a few weeks after tens of thousands of people protested outside the Turkish consulate in Beverly Hills in solidarity with Armenia following clashes that broke out with neighboring Azerbaijan over the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Turkey had expressed support for Azerbaijan.
A federal indictment made public today charges two Los Angeles-area men with conspiracy and hate crime offenses for allegedly attacking five victims at a family-owned Turkish restaurant while shouting anti-Turkish slurs, hurling chairs at the victims and threatening to kill them.
By City News Service
Apr 28, 2021
LOS ANGELES (CNS) - A federal indictment made public today charges two Los Angeles-area men with conspiracy and hate crime offenses for allegedly attacking five victims at a family-owned Turkish restaurant while shouting anti-Turkish slurs, hurling chairs at the victims and threatening to kill them.
The indictment was unsealed following the arrest of Harutyun Harry Chalikyan, 23, of Tujunga, who is scheduled to be arraigned today in Los Angeles federal court, according to the U.S. Attorney s Office.
The second defendant in the case William Stepanyan, 23, of Glendale is now in state custody and is expected to appear in federal court in the current case in the coming weeks.
A federal grand jury in Los Angeles indicted two Armenian American men on charges of conspiracy and hate crimes for allegedly attacking five people at a family-owned Turkish restaurant last year, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
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