‘They hit me, punched me and left me covered in blood’: Asian woman attacked by drug addict in NYC

Luckily, a passerby intervened and helped me, she added. Jerome David, 56, a civil protection worker, stepped in to help. He said: “It was just an intuition – I saw it and just reacted.”

Speaking to the US media outlet, David said it looked as if Garcia deliberately bumped into Lao and began to attack her. Before Loa could even react or apologize, the defendant punched her in the face, David added.

“At first I thought it was a prank – like that ‘Punk’d’ show they do,” he said. “But when I saw Garcia break the umbrella and hit her in the face, blood pouring out, I just thought, ‘Wow, what the hell?'”

He even tried to stop Garcia. He said, “She tried to run away in that direction, and I grabbed her right there, held her down, she hit me and broke my glasses, and then she ran over there, and I ran after her and pinned her to the ground,” according to ABC7.

No one else “did anything,” he said. Lao suffered bleeding cuts and scratches on his face and was immediately taken to a hospital. The Queens District Attorney’s Office has charged Garcia with two counts: attackGarcia, who was previously arrested on July 4 for cutting someone in the face with a razor blade during a dispute over crack cocaine, has eight previous arrests. Her bail was set at $5,000 cash at her July 18 arraignment, and she is scheduled to appear in court on July 29.

In a video, Lao, with her face bandaged, expressed her fear of returning to work. “I’m terrified of going back to work anytime soon,” she said. “And why me? Why Asian women? Is it because I’m short, I’m thin, I’m polite?”

Lao moved to the United States several years ago to pursue her bachelor’s and master’s degrees. After the attack, she stayed with friends for safety reasons. Reflecting on her experience, she noted that the city environment has changed in the past decade. “I’ve been in New York for almost 10 years, and in the beginning there weren’t that many homeless people or illegal immigrants,” she said. “But now there are a lot more. And I honestly don’t think the system is doing a good job of housing them or getting them an education and a job.”

Lao highlighted the growing sense of insecurity among ordinary citizens, especially women like her who are smaller. “An ordinary citizen just doesn’t feel safe, especially a weaker, smaller woman,” she added.

She expressed her gratitude to David, saying, “I think he really saved me.” She also added, “I still love the city and hope that measures can be taken to make the city safe again.”