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Crime & Safety

Auto Shop Owner Arrested on Charge of Hitting Man With Baseball Bat

The case involves the closure of an auto repair business and customers tying to retrieve property.

The owner of a Glendora auto repair shop posted $30,000 bail April 19 after being arrested on suspicion of hitting a man in the head with a baseball bat.

Officers arrested shop owner Edward Despins, 46, of Azusa after the Glendora Police Department received a 3:30 p.m. call Monday from Intercommunity Hospital in Covina. The caller reported that a man was being treated there for a head injury.

The man was hit in the head with a bat during a fight at the repair shop.

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The incident took place at Foothill Auto Repair, 511 W. Foothill Blvd. The repair shop was shut down April 14 by the state Bureau of Automotive Repair for being unlicensed.

Customers, many of which were acquainted with the shop owner, were trying to retrieve cars and car parts that they said belonged to them.

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Lt. Brian Summers said that officers have had to respond to the repair shop several times in regard to altercations. “We have been going out on almost a daily basis,” he said.

One call came at 1:40 p.m. on Monday, but it resulted in no arrests.

Summers said that when officers arrived at the shop after the hospital report, Despins tried to leave the premises through the back. He was caught and arrested.

Summers said he expects that police may get more calls from the auto shop now that the suspect has been released. Injuries to the man hit with the baseball bat are not thought to be life threatening, Summers added.

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