A pregnant woman in Dallas was with her 11-year-old son when a road rage incident led a motorcyclist to allegedly punch her and break her jaw in two places.
Still, Niesha Woods, a Black woman, ended up cited for alleged assault while her accused attacker initially walked free, according to multiple media reports.
Those outcomes, however, seemed to reverse in the days that followed.
“The charges have been dropped,” Woods’ attorney Justin Moore told Atlanta Black Star of his client.
He also said he filed a complaint against the man identified as Fareed Hashim and responding police officers.
Woods said during an earlier news conference August 26 her attacker was so belligerent she pushed the man to get him away from her and he responded by punching her in the face.
“My mouth was just dripping blood, and I felt dizzy,” Woods told reporters in the videotaped news conference.
It reportedly started August 22 as Woods was pulling out of her sister’s apartment parking lot near Arapaho and the North Dallas Tollway.
Moore said in a statement NBC affiliate KXAS-TV obtained that Woods didn’t see the motorcyclist and nearly struck him as she was pulling out of the apartment complex.
She said she only saw the man when he confronted her down the road and threw an object at her car.
She got out of her car to assess the damage and the motorcyclist walked up to her, yelling and using foul language, Moore told reporters.
Moore sat with Woods and her sister, who videotaped the incident, in the news conference.
“He called me a stupid b,” Woods said. “He told me I need to learn how to drive.”
She told reporters she tried to calm the motorcyclist down by telling him she was 5 months pregnant and that her 11-year-old son was in the car, but that didn’t work.
“He told me he don’t give a f about that and that he’ll kill me,” Woods said. “I told him if he touched me he’s going to jail. He laughed at me and told me good luck with that.”
That’s when Woods said the incident escalated to violence and she called 911.
She said Addison police arrived first then turned the matter over to Dallas police because it was determined to be their jurisdiction.
When cops arrived, a witness reportedly told them Woods hit the motorcyclist in the face.
Woods denied that allegation and pointed out that the man wore a helmet at the time.
“He’s so bigger than me I couldn’t even reach him to punch him like that,” Woods said.
After the press conference, Woods and Moore went to Dallas police headquarters to file formal complaints against Hashim and the officers who arrived on the scene, Moore said.
“No woman, especially a woman carrying a child, should be a victim of such a crime,” Moore told reporters. “Furthermore, no woman who was brutalized in such a manner should be forced to endure humiliation from the same officers that she called to the scene.”
Hashim was ultimately arrested on an aggravated assault charge connected to the incident.