LAPD takes into custody suspect in Bryan Stow beating, bringing hope for justice

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Admit it, you had probably begun to wonder if the Los Angeles Police Department would ever nab the two suspects who had brutally beaten Giants fan Bryan Stow on opening day.

It was closing in on two months since the beating left Stow with brain damage, and despite mountains of publicity and a priority focus of the LAPD, time went by without an arrest.

Despite the attention, the reward money, the composite sketches -- that in truth, hardly distinguished the suspects -- and the recent billboards plastered around the city, time did not seem to be working in the LAPD’s favor.

The fear was that, despite it all, they just didn’t have enough hard evidence to work with. Or that the suspects had long since fled the area and vanished into foreign obscurity.

Only early Sunday morning, the Los Angeles Times’ Joel Rubin reported that a SWAT team descended upon a three-story East Hollywood apartment building and took into custody one of the men the LAPD suspects of beating Stow.

The LAPD has said nothing officially, and taking someone into custody is not the same as being prosecuted or, certainly, found guilty. And even if they do have the right man, that still leaves one suspect at large.

Yet it should spark hope for the Stow family, and all those in Los Angeles and elsewhere pained and embarrassed by this crime, that these criminals will be brought to justice.

Stow, 42, remains in critical condition. Doctors in San Francisco reported a measure of optimism this week that his seizures had been brought under control.

Any optimism has been hard to come by regarding the Stow beating, but this early-morning event brought a sliver, and real hope for more.

-- Steve Dilbeck