Muslim student claims hospital to blame after being attacked by a patient

A Muslim college student in a headscarf claimed a Michigan hospital failed to protect her from getting physically assaulted by a patient.

In a civil complaint filed in a Dearborn, Michigan, circuit court, a 19-year-old student -- who is identified as "a practicing Muslim" and wears a headscarf, or hijab -- was dropped off by her mother at the Beaumont Hospital-Dearborn around 3:30 a.m. on Feb. 10 to receive treatment for a broken jaw after slipping and falling on ice.

A teen can be seen in released surveillance video footage, pacing up to the receptionist's desk in the lobby of the Beaumont Hospital-Dearborn Emergency Room. She can be seen beginning the registration process with the receptionist while standing on a black mat as a uniformed Beaumont security guard appears to be speaking to someone out of the frame.

Eventually, a shaggy-haired man in a green jacket with a plaid scarf around his neck, according to the footage, sneaked up from behind the teen. He drew his fist and began repeatedly punching her, knocking her to the floor. The receptionist ran from around her desk to pull the victim away as the security guard had the attacker pinned and three other hospital staffers poured out from a door in the foreground to intervene.

The attacker has been identified by Dearborn Police and the civil complaint as 50-year-old John Deliz.

ABC News has attemped to reach out to Deliz for comment.

The civil complaint suggested that Deliz struck the victim on the side of her head one time "without any warning" and that he continued with "several more punches to her head" before he was pinned to the ground by a hospital security guard.

Deliz, according to the complaint, attacked the Muslim woman "for no other reason but because she was a Muslim!"

Majed Moughni, the attorney representing the victim told ABC station WXYZ that Deliz was turned away for care by the hospital and was already posing as a threat.

"He wanted mental care, he didn't get it," Moughni said of Deliz, and added that he was discharged. "They knew he was a danger yet instead of removing him, removing this danger, they allow him to stay and they allowed him literally to attack my client."

The responding cops, according to the police report, stated that the Muslim victim wasn't the only victim of Deliz.

Before he allegedly targeted the Muslim patient, Deliz, the police report stated, was discharged from the hospital but decided to remain on the premises allegedly "wandering down the adjacent hallways" and accosting "other patients, asking for cigarettes."

The cops, in the report, noticed the victim was "visibly shaken" and that she "had no idea who Deliz was."

Beaumont Dearborn Hospital in a statement acknowledged that on Feb. 10, one of its patients "became physically aggressive with another patient in the waiting room."

The hospital also defended its security measures on the morning of the incident.

"Beaumont security personnel responded immediately and took action to protect the patient and others in the emergency room" before police were called, the statement added.