Police: 73-Year-Old Man Beaten To Death By Hospital Roommate In Long Beach
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LONG BEACH, CA (KCAL/KCBS) — A 73-year-old man who was severely beaten by his hospital roommate has died, police in Long Beach said Monday.
Francisco Sanchez, 74, died Sunday morning, according to Long Beach police. His official cause of death will be determined by the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office.
Police say Sanchez was attacked on Jan. 31, just hours after being admitted at College Medical Center for a bladder infection. His son said a nurse found his father on the floor, bleeding to death.
It’s not clear if anything prompted the attack or how hospital staff was alerted. But police said identified the suspect as Reginald Daniel Panthier, 37, of Long Beach, who was also a patient at College Medical Center and was sharing Sanchez’s room at the time.
The father of eight children and grandfather of 24 granchildren, Sanchez sustained major injuries to his upper torso and was taken to another hospital in critical condition. He died of his injuries Sunday morning, police said.
Panthier was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon that is not a firearm and producing great bodily harm against an elder immediately after the Jan. 31 attack. Long Beach police say they plan to amend those charge with the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office this week in the wake of Sanchez’s death.
Panthier is being held on $1 million bail.
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