A Los Angeles woman fought off a would-be sexual assailant who tried to tear her clothes off; all while passer-by walked past and did nothing, as The Independent is reporting . What’s more; the entire assault was captured on security cameras.
The would-be victim, identified only as a woman in her thirties, was walking out of her apartment complex in the Van Nuys section of the city when the alleged assault happened. She was approached by a suspect, believed to be in his forties, who “reeked of alcohol.” The man spoke to her in Spanish, a language the victim doesn’t understand, and she tried to walk away.
However, according to KNBC (Los Angeles), the alleged assailant, not willing to take no for an answer, began tearing at the woman’s clothes. The woman “ put on at least a two-to three-minute fight ” as the assailant managed to tear off her pants and underwear.
Evan as she fought off the attacker, passer-by walked by and did nothing. No one intervened, and no one called the police, says LAPD Detective Eric Rose.
“She was screaming, ‘Fire, fire, fire,’ to get someone to recognize what was happening.”
Nearby security cameras captured footage of the assault, which you can see in the video embedded below.
Captain Lilian Carranza warned of the importance of capturing the assailant as soon as possible.
“This individual is extremely dangerous and he needs to be taken off the streets.”
Composite in attempted rape 14400 Vanowen, Van Nuys suspect 5:9, aprox 40 years of age @NU34LA @LAPDCARRANZA @lapdVanNuysDiv pic.twitter.com/CHFOGEu481
— Oswaldo Borraez (@oborraez) August 15, 2017
Police describe the suspect as Hispanic, 40-50 years old, 5 feet 9 inches tall, and about 180 pounds with brown eyes and a bald head. He wore a baseball cap with an unknown logo on it and a three- or four-button polo-type shirt with unidentified details on the left chest area and the right sleeve.
This is not the first time this year that passersby have been accused of gross indifference to another human in distress. In July, in a case out of Florida, several teenagers were accused of ignoring the cries of a drowning man, and instead, they chose to film his death with their cell phones. As CNN reported at the time, the teens then posted the video of his drowning on social media. Because the teens didn’t break any specific laws, they were not charged with any crimes.
[Featured Image by Ingram Publishing/Thinkstock]
