Prosecutors have filed two felony vandalism charges against a man accused of going on a window-smashing spree that alarmed and frustrated neighbors in Downtown Long Beach’s East Village.
Ryan Verzani, 33, is due in court Thursday to face accusations he shattered windows at the Wabi Sabi Village Market and Salon Five Hundred at the corner of Broadway and Linden Avenue.
Police said they also suspect Verzani is responsible for smashing windows at five other nearby storefronts during the spree on June 6 and 7. Businesses including Wa Wa Restaurant, Sushi Mafia, Thai District and Culture Shrooms reported being vandalized that night.
The Long Beach Police Department and the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office both declined to discuss why Verzani was not charged with those alleged crimes. Police also accused Verzani of smashing about 20 car windows. Authorities declined to explain the outcome of the investigation into those incidents.
“We can’t comment further to protect the integrity of this open case,” Pam Johnson, a spokesperson for the District Attorney’s office said in an email.
Verzani’s alleged crimes made headlines across the region in June, highlighting the struggles of business owners in Downtown Long Beach who have complained about repeated break-ins and vandalism.
It also heightened fears among Verzani’s neighbors, who soon sought a restraining order trying to bar him from the premises of the condo building where he lived at Linden and Broadway.
In court papers, they alleged Verzani had a history of erratic behavior, at one point trying to force his way into his upstairs neighbor’s unit after he inexplicably complained that he heard construction noise coming from inside and refused to listen when the neighbor said there was no construction.
“I am terrified of what he will do next, people in the Complex are scared of him and we are not safe with him here,” the neighbor wrote in a sworn statement. Verzani, she wrote, also had smashed his own living room window, leaving glass all over the second-floor roof that it overlooked.
Verzani did not respond to a message left at a phone number listed for him in court records.
Heloise Torquato said Verzani was subletting from her at the Lafayette Building condos at 140 Linden Avenue. She alleged he left her unit “a disaster” with thousands of dollars in damage.
He had been a problem tenant for months before the alleged vandalism spree, according to Torquato.
“Each time I received a complaint about his bizarre and disturbing behavior I would post Ryan’s door with a Quit or Cure notice,” she wrote in an email, but the specific behavior would stop and she’d have no recourse to kick him out.
Finally, after the June vandalism spree, Torquato believed she had enough to justify eviction under California law and began proceedings.
Verzani, she said, moved out in early August, although she believed threats from locals may have motivated him more than the looming possibility of eviction.
In an Instagram account under his name, people began leaving comments such as, “They gonna smash your face in like glass windows” and “WE COMING FOR YOU.”
Torquato said Verzani sent her an email saying he had to leave because he’d been “doxxed,” meaning his name, address or other private information had been revealed online.
Torquato said she does not know where Verzani is living now. He has not been taken into custody since being charged but has been sent a notification to appear in court Thursday, according to court records.
The vandalism charges against him typically carry a maximum penalty of three years in prison, but the sentence could be increased because he was allegedly on probation at the time for unlawful possession of a firearm.
He was also in the middle of another criminal case where authorities alleged he’d broken into two restaurants near the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and vandalized a vending machine at a laundromat in the same shopping center.
In that case, court records show Verzani pleaded no contest in August to one count of second-degree burglary and was sentenced to two years of probation.