A Los Angeles woman raised concerns about public safety after she was violently assaulted while walking her dog in the middle of a day in the Fairfax neighborhood.
The victim, Sigal Engelberg, said she noticed an apparently unhoused person across the street at around 4:30 p.m. on June 24.
She attempted to avoid him as she thought the man looked "mentally unstable and deranged,” but he crossed the street, approached her from behind and attacked her.
"He punched me on the cheek just from behind so hard that he knocked me to the ground," Engelberg recounted, explaining the attack left her with scrapes and bleeding from her knee and arms.
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“I lost several layers of skin,” Engelberg said, as her dog was also knocked down and injured in the incident.
Two female passersby stopped to call police, but it took an hour for LAPD officers to arrive, Engelberg said.
The LAPD confirmed the assault but added that shortly after responding to the incident, its officers were called away to respond to a stolen car report. Instead, West Hollywood Sheriff's deputies, who happened to be passing by, stopped to assist and took a courtesy report for the LAPD.
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Engelberg expressed her concern for more potential victims.
"I was told by other people in the neighborhood that he has been attacking other women," she said, adding that another woman in the area saw the same man throwing rocks at other women.
“I've been living here for 10 years, and we never had anything like this happen before. I really hope that they can control the area more,” she said.
Engelberg, who described the man to be approximately 6 feet tall with a muscular build, urged anyone who sees him to contact the authorities immediately to prevent further attacks.
