A South Los Angeles woman is playing detective to track down a man she says assaulted her in a random attack in South L.A. earlier this month.
According to FOX 11, Stacie McGinty was walking in an alley near her home on Valentines Day when the unthinkable happened. As McGinty was on the phone with her dad discussing a recent job interview she had, the 28-year-old suddenly found herself bloodied and on the ground with multiple injuries to her head.
Stacie McGinty (left) suffered injuries so severe she required 12 stitches on her forehead as well as a few by her eyebrow and upper lip. (Images courtesy of FOX 11 / @staciiiee)
What she initially thought was an accidental clash with a cyclist turned out to be an attack by a total stranger, security footage from a nearby church showed. The assault left McGinty with a nasty gash on her forehead that required 12 stitches, as well as a few more near her eyebrow and two on her upper lip, the station reported.
Surveillance video shows the young woman strolling along the alley moments before a figure runs toward her a full speed from the back, knocking her over. The force caused McGinty to slam her head against a cement block wall and an exposed metal post.
What’s worse, the footage shows a woman with an umbrella walking by as McGinty falls to the ground who McGinty said asked if she was all right but didn’t stop to help or offer to call police.
“You don’t even have to stop if you’re scared, but you could have called the police,” she lamented to FOX 11. “Nobody should be that lady. If we’re all that lady, we’re lost.”
McGinty reported the incident to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department after getting her hands on the security video, but says the authorities have been of little help since then.
“I haven’t really slept and my anxiety has really taken a toll on me since everything has occurred,” she wrote in an Instagram post on Sunday. “Detectives did visit me after the story aired. I gave them all the information I had for the third time and even went as far as giving them the direct number to the man that helped me get this new footage. Why they haven’t obtained this before I did baffles me but I’m glad I have it.”
McGinty said the new footage, which she also posted, gives a clearer image of the suspect’s face. In the clips, the assailant, who is a white male, is acting suspiciously and at one point appears to be breaking into someone’s car until a bystander confronts him. FOX 11 also described another video where the man is seen kicking a car and walking toward two girls in a “threatening” manner.”
The station reported that the area where McGinty was attacked “is rife with drug sellers, the drug addicted and the kind of crimes associated with that kind of activity.”
Police Lt. Richard Conti said detectives will eventually get to her case but McGinty likely will have to wait a little while longer. The Los Angeles woman is already three steps ahead, however, and is working on tracking down her attacker herself.
“This man needs to be off the street 😔,” McGinty wrote. “Until then I will continue to protect and serve myself… Just know your prayers are working guys 🙏🙏🙏.”
Watch more in the video below.