Two fingers in splints and wounds on his check, forehead and scalp, Christopher Mandapat returned to work Thursday at his smoke shop, a week after he was brutally beaten.

A man and teenaged boy caught on a store security video beating Mandapat at about 11 a.m. May 9 were regulars at his Smoke Shack smoke shop on the Benson Highway at roughly Southeast 192nd Street.

Mandapat, 31, of Kent has no idea why they attacked him as he was stocking drinks on his shelves. He was hit with a stick and bottles.

“They were trying to knock me out on the first hit,” he said. “I was fighting for my life.”

It all happened so fast, he said; he was just trying to stay on his feet and not lose consciousness.

He was treated at Valley Medical Center and released the same day. He has 25 staples in his head but didn’t suffer a concussion.

“I am healing up fast,” he said Thursday.

A 50-year-old Seattle man convicted in 1990 of murder was charged last week in the assault on Mandapat.Joel White is being held on $750,000 bail at the King County jail in Kent on charges of second-degree assault. His arraignment is May 24. He was arrested last Friday.

The 17-year-old, Christopher Lockett, surrendered to Renton Police on Monday afternoon and was taken to the King County youth detention center in Seattle, where he remains in secured lockup.

He was charged with second-degree assault in juvenile court Thursday afternoon. A judge will decide in two weeks or so whether to try Lockett as an adult. He turns 18 in September.

Mandapat was at the cash register Thursday afternoon. Friends and customers were in the store. He had done most of the clean up – including wiping off the blood from the walls – last weekend.