Man Charged in Alleged Revenge Shooting

A Redondo Beach resident was charged Friday with shooting a man he believed raped his wife, using a composite sketch to identify the alleged assailant at a Hermosa Beach bar and, according to police, saying, “This is for my wife” as he fired.

The 32-year-old man, who is not being named by The Times to protect the identity of his wife, was charged with assault with a deadly weapon, as well as inflicting great bodily injury and the use of a firearm. If convicted, he faces more than 20 years in state prison. He was released on $40,000 bail.

The gunshot victim, Ali Sina Sharareh, 22, of Pleasant Hill, Calif., is listed in fair condition at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, where he underwent emergency surgery for a wound in his buttocks.

Authorities said Friday that Sharareh is not a suspect in the sexual assault. Detectives have not yet spoken with Sharareh because of his surgery.

Hermosa Beach Police Lt. Paul Wolcott said pictures of Sharareh resemble the composite sketch, but added, “There’s still a long way to go on the rape investigation.”

The 21-year-old woman reported that she was raped about 3 a.m. Sunday while walking home alone from the bar, Patrick Molloy’s, police said. The woman told police that she had spoken briefly with her attacker at the bar, but detectives would not disclose what was said.

On Wednesday, she and her husband met with police to create a composite sketch. Hours later, police said, the husband went in search of the attacker on his own, returning to the upscale Irish pub located along a promenade of shops, bars and restaurants by the Hermosa Beach pier.

Authorities say the husband was in the bar for nearly two hours before he saw a man he believed resembled the sketch. He followed Sharareh into the bathroom, shot him once in the buttocks and then fled, police said.

Bar owner Fred Hahn said the bartender working at Molloy’s at the time called police after assisting Sharareh. “Since it happened in the bathroom, they didn’t even know anyone had been shot until [Sharareh] came up and said he’d been hit,” said Hahn, who was not there at the time.

After witnesses to the shooting described the assailant, Hermosa Beach detectives recognized the shooter as the husband and went to question him at his Redondo Beach home. Police said he admitted the shooting and gave them his gun, a 9-millimeter pistol.

Robin Yanes, the man’s lawyer, said his client is only dangerous to “the man who raped his wife.”

Yanes said to a group of reporters outside the Torrance courthouse, “Ask yourselves, isn’t it the man’s job to protect your wife?” An arraignment is scheduled Jan. 12.

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Times staff writer David Pierson contributed to this story.