Personal Injury Lawyers > Personal Injury Blog > Assault and Battery > Swedish Musician Arrested for Assault and Battery in Los Angeles

Personal Injury Blog

Swedish Musician Arrested for Assault and Battery in Los Angeles

What started off as a near-pedestrian accident quickly turned into an assault and battery case, leaving one of the people involved dead, and the other facing an arraignment this morning.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the victim, 55-year-old John Osnes, a pianist, was crossing the street at the intersection of Schrader Boulevard and Selma Avenue when a sports utility vehicle edged into the crosswalk. The SUV was being driven by Swedish hip-hop artist David Moses Jassy, aka Dave Monopoly. Osnes, who’s also a well-known pedestrian rights activist was annoyed at this intrusion into pedestrian space, and slapped the SUV using his hand, the LA Times reports. An enraged Jassy then alighted from the SUV and began punching and kicking the pianist. He then got back in the car and – here comes the shocker – drove the SUV over Osnes’ body. People in the vicinity who witnessed the assault and battery, tried to restrain Jassy, but he got back into his SUV and fled from the scene. Osnes was rushed to the hospital where he was declared dead.

Jassy has now been charged with assault and battery, as well as leaving the scene of an accident. His bail has been set at $1 million. His lack of familiarity with English seems to have hampered initial proceedings, which had to be postponed when he asked for a Swedish interpreter.

Meanwhile, family and friends of Osnes struggled to come to terms with his senseless death. They remembered him as a kind man who loved playing at piano bars, and hated aggressive motorists with the same passion. He didn’t own a car and never learned to drive. He had lived in cities across the country and had used public transportation each time, never buying a car. At the piano bar that Osnes visited often, residents in the neighborhood spoke of regularly seeing him walking on the sidewalks.

Our deepest sympathies go out to the Osnes family at this terrible time in their lives.

Jassy deserves the most severe punishment that he can receive for his behavior. That this incident happened in sunny Los Angeles doesn’t even surprise us. This is the city that ranks fourth on a list of road rage incidents in the country, behind New York, Miami and Phoenix. Whatever you blame road rage on – congestion on the streets, high stress levels etc. – there is simply no excuse for Jassy’s behavior. It will be interesting to see what the Public Defender assigned to him will present as his defense. So far, there has not been any comment from the Public Defender’s office.

We’ve all been victims of road rage in some form or the other. It could be the rude gesture in your face in the morning rush hour traffic, or the curse thrown in your direction as a motorist overtakes you. Across the country, people exhibit aggressive driving in different ways. Osnes’ death is simply the most extreme manifestation of a vicious and aggressive mindset that we see all too often.

The Osnes family must seek the experienced counsel of a California wrongful death lawyer to determine their options in this case.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of assault and battery. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

---