Friend: 2nd Vet Hurt At Protest Was Walking Home

OAKLAND (AP) — A friend of the second Iraq war veteran hospitalized after getting hurt at an Occupy Oakland protest says the man wasn't participating in the demonstration when he was injured and arrested.

Esther Goodstal says her friend and business partner Kayvan Sabeghi was only trying to get home when he was beaten by police.

An Oakland police spokesman didn't immediately return a call seeking comment Saturday.

A Highland Hospital spokesman says the 32-year-old Sabeghi is in fair condition. Goodstal says Sabeghi had to undergo surgery for a lacerated spleen.

She says Sabeghi was walking home in west Oakland sometime late Wednesday or early Thursday when he encountered a line of police at the protest who wouldn't let him through. She says Sabeghi told her he tried to explain his situation and officers began hitting him with batons.

Records show Sabeghi was then booked on suspicion of resisting arrest. He was one of more than 100 people arrested by 3 p.m. Thursday.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press