LAKEPORT – The Lake County Sheriff's Office is searching for the suspect in a violent assault that left a local man with serious head and facial injuries.

Sheriff's Capt. James Bauman said that 49-year-old Dale Andrew Pirlo of Cobb was assaulted in an incident that was reported shortly before 12:30 a.m. Jan. 23 outside of the Jack in the Box on Soda Bay Road.

"Our deputies got on scene and found him with multiple lacerations, contusions, about his face and head," said Bauman. "He was pretty delirious although he was conscious."

Pirlo, a part-time Jack in the Box employee, initially was unable to describe the attack, said Bauman. However, when Lakeport Fire Protection District staff put him in the ambulance to transport him to Sutter Lakeside Hospital, Pirlo began to recount what occurred.

Bauman said Pirlo stated that a white male adult with short black hair who was riding a bicycle approached him as he was leaving the fast food restaurant following his shift. The suspect reportedly asked Pirlo to hold open the locked door so he could go inside and use the restroom.

When Pirlo refused, the suspect attacked him, said Bauman.

At the hospital, Pirlo was determined to have not just contusions and lacerations to his head and face but also multiple facial fractures, said Bauman. Sutter Lakeside discharged Pirlo at about 4 a.m. that same morning.

Pirlo told Lake County News Tuesday night that doctors told him that his nose and sinuses are broken, his jaw is out of alignment and he has suffered a concussion.

While Pirlo was on his way to the hospital, a man believed to be the suspect in Pirlo's assault was spotted across town, said Bauman.

At about 1:10 a.m. a Lakeport Police officer called in a male subject who fled from him on foot behind Bruno's Shop Smart on Lakeport Boulevard, Bauman said.

Sheriff's deputies responded to the area, said Bauman, with the California Highway Patrol also later sending backup.

During the search for the suspect, sheriff's deputies located an overturned dumpster behind the UPS store in the Bruno's shopping center, Bauman said. The dumpster appeared to have been used to get over a nearby fence and into the Shoreline Self Storage on Kimberly Lane.

Police, deputies and CHP officers spent the next hour looking for the man, but were unable to locate him, said Bauman. The suspect was described as wearing gray sweats and a black hooded sweatshirt.

Bauman called the two incidents "more than likely connected."

He said that there are other good leads in the case helping to match the assault suspect with the man who fled police across town, but he did not want to offer details at this time, as the case is actively being investigated.

Frances Pirlo of Kelseyville, Dale Pirlo's mother, said he was "beaten to a pulp."

"I certainly hope they get him," she said of the suspect. "He's a very dangerous person."

Dale Pirlo said that investigators told him the incident may have been an attempted robbery.

"He thought he'd killed me and left me for dead," Pirlo suggested in discussing the suspect.

Pirlo, a single father of two who has been working three jobs, said he remembers only the initial confrontation with the suspect, who approached him as he was leaving work and called out to him to hold the door.

The restaurant was closed, said Pirlo, who works a swing shift at Jack in the Box four nights a week. Pirlo said he refused to hold open the door and continued walking, carrying a milkshake and egg rolls in his hands, as he ended his shift for the night.

The suspect, who Pirlo said he'd never seen before, began cursing him. The last thing Pirlo remembered was seeing a body in front of him.

He said he doesn't know how long he was lying on the pavement. "Eventually, something woke me up. I was in a pool of blood."

Pirlo got up and pounded on the doors of the restaurant, as some of his coworkers were still inside. They then called for help.

He's making a round of local doctors to have the damage to his face surveyed. A Wednesday trip to a local doctor will determine if surgery to reconstruct his sinuses is necessary.

"I have challenges to overcome," Pirlo said.

Anyone with information on the incident or the alleged suspect should call the Lake County Sheriff's Office at 262-4200.

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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