Inset: Paul Alan Thomas (LAPD). Background: A man identified as Thomas allegedly beats a woman with an accomplice in the Westlake neighborhood of Los Angeles, Calif. (Sabrina de la Peña/KTLA).
A California man is wanted by law enforcement after a 62-year-old woman was attacked with a skateboard, pepper spray, and an unknown liquid in separate incidents, Golden State authorities say.
Paul Alan Thomas, 24, is wanted by the Los Angeles Police Department over the attacks on Sabrina de la Peña. A second suspect has already been arrested; a third suspect has yet to be identified.
De la Peña owns two convenience stores in the Westlake District in central Los Angeles and has done business for nearly 40 years, according to interviews with various national and local media outlets.
The trouble began in April 2025, the victim told West Coast The CW flagship television station KTLA. The latest alleged attack came in May 2025.
"This is the sixth attack," she said at the time. "They tried to kill me."
This week, police identified Thomas as one of the men responsible.
In surveillance footage of the attack, a man is seen hiding outside the victim's door holding a skateboard, police said. Then, the man is seen rushing inside. The man used the skateboard to brutally beat De la Peña, police said. Then, the man dragged the woman outside where he continued beating her while an accomplice looks on, KTLA reported.
"They punched me. They kicked me. I tried to go outside, they pushed me inside," De la Peña told CBS News Los Angeles last year. "I received more than 50 punches. After that, I started screaming, and when nobody was coming, I said OK and asked God why?"
In the aftermath of that incident, the victim was kicked to the ground, left with a split lip, and had $30,000 cash stolen, KTLA reported.
On May 27, 2025, the LAPD arrested Samuel Parros, 30, for allegedly taking part in one of the prior attacks — noting that he was in custody before the sixth attack occurred on May 31, 2025.
During those earlier incidents, De la Peña was pepper-sprayed, doused with liquid, and nearly shocked with a Taser-like device, police said. During one such incident, an attacker tried to shoot her twice, but she was saved when the gun misfired, De la Peña told the TV station.
An LAPD press release summarizes the situation as follows:
[T]he same suspect returned to the location multiple times with additional suspects and committed hate crimes against the victim. During one incident, the suspect used a skateboard to strike the victim. On another occasion, the suspect pepper-sprayed the victim. In the final incident, the suspect threw an unknown liquid at the victim while another suspect attempted to stun her with a Taser.
The victim, for her part, believes her identity as a transgender woman was the motivation for the attacks.
"Believe me," she told KTLA in June 2025, begging for protection from law enforcement. "When are you going to do something for me? What are you waiting for? You're waiting for them to kill me."
Law enforcement, for its part, agreed with the victim that the crimes likely had a source in anti-transgender bigotry.
"This series [of attacks] is being investigated as a hate crime," LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell previously said. "We're requesting public assistance in locating these suspects, and we're asking for their assistance in identifying and apprehending the suspects."
The first attack occurred after one of the suspects tried to flirt with the victim in her store but left after she rebuffed his advances, police told CBS News. The man returned later that same day, sexually assaulted De la Peña, and then threatened to kill her when he learned she was transgender, according to the LAPD.
In July 2025, the L.A. County Board of Supervisors offered a $10,000 reward for the arrest and conviction of the men responsible.
Due to the nature of the attacks, police believe there are likely additional victims in similar crimes and want them to come forward.
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