A Long Beach woman said a man who attacked her while walking to her car for work two days before Christmas thought she’d be an easy target, but she wasn’t going to let him take her hard-earned belongings without a fight.
“He just kept knocking my head, over and over and over again, and there was a point where...and I almost stopped fighting, but I don't know what happened. I just was like, ‘No, I'm not going to stop fighting,’ and I just got back up,” Beth Quintana exclaimed.
Quintana moved to an apartment off Cedar Avenue and 25th Street in Long Beach one month ago. She was walking to her car on her way to work, just after 4 a.m. Saturday, when she saw a man riding a bike in her direction. Next thing she knew, she saw a shadow, and he hit her on the head from behind.
“I fell to the floor, and he turned me around and got on top of me,” she recalled. “I just kept screaming and he kept hitting me in the head.”
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She said she fought, not letting him take her phone satchel, her purse, or her bag. Their fight took them across the street. Some of her belongings were still on the ground Christmas morning, along with some of her broken fingernails.
“At first I thought he wanted to rape me, then I was like he wants my belongings, then I was like this guy just wants to hurt me,” Quintana said.
It was the first time she’d ever gotten into a fight. She said she was able to knock him to the ground twice. He even resorted to pulling a knife out, but she continued to fight, grabbing the knife from him, even as it cut her several times.
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She said 10 or 15 minutes passed before someone came out of their house down the street, and the man got back on his bike and rode off.
“I have like a broken nose, broken finger…the bone under my eye is broken. I had a concussion. I have scrapes all over my knees, my feet. My hands are swollen. My finger was almost cut off from grabbing the knife, so I have stitches… cut marks from the blade,” she explained, her hands swollen and wrapped.
All of her cuts and bruises represent how hard she works for her money.
“I’m working check to check, I’m 44, I just started a new job, I’m a manager. I work very hard. I cannot afford to buy a new phone,” she said.
As for others, she advises everyone to be aware of their surroundings.
“You don’t know who’s lurking behind a tree. Have something on you just in case, pepper spray, taser, knife to protect yourself,” Quintana said.
Her neighbors with surveillance cameras said they did not catch the fight, but she’s hoping someone in the neighborhood has video or knows who the man might be.
The man did not get away with any of her belongings. She adds that his jacket and knife were also left behind, she hopes police are able to use them as evidence.
Long Beach Police told NBC4 News that the investigation is ongoing.
