Tragedy struck the heart of San Diego's Gaslamp Quarter as police have made two arrests in connection with the death of a man assaulted last month. Charles Hughes, 38, succumbed to severe head injuries on March 29 after initially being attacked on March 21 near 900 4th Avenue.
According to an official statement from the San Diego Police Department, Hughes was found unresponsive on the sidewalk early in the morning by the Central Division officers and medics. However, his injuries were not deemed life-threatening at the time. They later proved fatal. The Neighborhood Policing Division followed up initially; however, the case escalated to the Homicide Unit after Hughes's condition deteriorated.
The investigation, in close collaboration with the San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office, concluded that Hughes died from blunt force trauma to the head. Two suspects, Ashley Bonk and a 17-year-old Guamanian female whose name has been withheld, have been arrested on murder charges. Bonk, a 28-year-old from Chula Vista, CA, was apprehended in front of a business on Park Boulevard by a San Diego Community College District officer.
Her alleged accomplice, a minor, was taken into custody without incident at 1100 C Street. The minor is set to be booked into San Diego County Juvenile Hall on one count of murder. As the investigation presses on, the Homicide Unit is urging anyone with information to come forward and contact them.
The San Diego community reels from the fallout of this violent act as the judicial process unfolds for the accused. With one suspect incarcerated at Las Colinas County Jail and the other, a juvenile, awaiting booking, the city looks to law enforcement and the courts for resolution and justice in the untimely death of Charles Hughes.
