Elderly man hospitalized by group of teens after he tried to stop their bullying

A California grandfather who tried to intervene on behalf of a bullied boy wound up in the hospital after a group of teens turned their aggressions on him, KOVR-TV reports.

What happened?

Jimi Leo, 61, was at a local skate park in Fairfield, California, on Tuesday. Leo said his kids and grandkids grew up spending time at that park.

While there, he saw a group of more than a dozen teenagers picking on one boy.

“15 or 20 kids roll up on him,” Leo said to KOVR. “They’re calling him the N-word and stuff like that. They were going to beat him up, obviously.”

Leo approached the group, to try and break up the conflict, causing the teenagers to turn on him, punching him and knocking him to the ground before kicking him repeatedly.

Egging it on?

Leo admitted that he may have escalated the encounter some, saying that after he was hit the first time he asked if that was all they had. He said he had consumed a few beers earlier in the day.

Any regrets?

Still, Leo doesn’t regret standing up for the boy, saying that teenage bullies are a growing problem. He also said he was a victim of bullying when he was a child.

“They’re just looking for trouble,” Leo said. “It’s such a thing in society now, where they’re just running around rampant, nothing to do."

Leo suffered a broken jaw, and his mouth is currently wired shut.

“If you’re going to do this to somebody that’s walking with a cane, an older gentleman, can you only imagine what they could potentially do to the boy he was sticking up for?” said Leo’s daughter, Angel Blood, in an interview with KOVR.

Police are investigating the attack as a felony battery and seeking four male teen suspects.