An unidentified victim is recovering in the hospital after suffering critical injuries in an assault on Monday on a trail in Griffith Park.

Det. Jeanna Franco, with the Los Angeles Police Department’s Northeast Division, said a 54-year-old suspect was arrested shortly after the assault and has been booked for attempted murder. The suspect, identified as Tyrone C. Isumu, is accused of striking the victim multiple times with a trash barrel during the assault near Fern Dell and Red Oak drives, north of Los Feliz Boulevard.

Franco said although it was widely reported that the assault involved two transients, the suspect has an address in Encino and is not an individual who typically fits the description of being homeless. She said Isumu frequents the Hollywood area, and had met the victim prior to them both voluntarily going together to the park.

“The guys originally met up at a liquor store before heading up to Griffith Park to smoke meth together,” Franco said. “Somehow, they got into a fight, and one of them hit the other with one of those big metal trash cans.”

Franco said hikers on the trail found the victim at approximately 3:30 p.m. and called 911. Firefighters and police arrived a short time later, and the victim was airlifted by a fire department helicopter to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Franco said he suffered facial fractures and a broken leg, and described him as being in his 40s.

“Somebody heard the commotion and called authorities,” Franco said. “[The suspect] took off running and had some blood on him. Hollywood [patrol] officers arrested him before they even knew what happened, and they later put things together.”

Isumu allegedly ran on to the campus of Immaculate Heart High School, which is located southwest of where the attack occurred, and school authorities called police. Isumu allegedly later admitted to his role in the assault, Franco said.

“What we want people to know is that it was not random violence. He was not a hiker and the park is safe,” Franco added. “I don’t know where [other media outlets] got that it was two homeless people. These people knew each other and went there for a reason.”

The detective said the incident is “completely unrelated” to two attempted sexual assaults in May, in which an unknown Hispanic male suspect approached separate victims on separate dates in the Fern Dell area of Griffith Park. The suspect allegedly approached the victims and spoke Spanish before attempting to grab them. The victims ran away and were not injured. Franco said she believes those cases remain unsolved.

The detective added that police routinely patrol the park, and that police will attempt to keep a high profile in the area.

“The public is not in danger,” she said. “We don’t have assaults randomly happening in the park.”