Surveillance video shows a group of skateboarders assaulting a security guard in San Francisco’s Financial District, leaving him with brain damage that’s changed his life forever. Jean Elle reports.
A San Francisco judge has declared a mistrial in a skateboard attack case that left a security guard with permanent brain damage after a jury declared they were deadlocked over the verdict.
The hung jury means the San Francisco District Attorney's Office has to evaluate what their next step will be.
Dan Jansen was beaten after confronting a group of skateboarders last November. Prosecutors say it was a brutal attack, but the only person charged in the case says it was self defense.
Jesse Vieira, 24, was taken custody for assault with a deadly weapon after video shows him attacking security guard Dan Jansen on Nov. 25 in the financial district.
Security footage shows Jansen putting up barricades in place to block the boarders while they were removing them. As the guard worked, the group attacked, knocking the 57-year-old to the ground and leaving him unconscious.
Jansen’s family said the blow to the head with a skateboard changed the avid fisherman’s life forever.
Jensen needed emergency brain surgery and is now in a rehab facility where he is learning how to talk and walk again. More than a month since the attack, he still doesn’t recognize loved ones.
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"He can’t walk yet, he can feed himself and is starting to brush his teeth, huge accomplishment," his niece Amanda told NBC Bay Area in January.
Though the family said eight people attacked Jensen, only Vieira is in custody.
Viera's attorney said he has the video that will prove he was not the aggressor.
