EXCLUSIVE: SF woman injured in unprovoked attack while celebrating a birthday at Ocean Beach
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- A birthday celebration turned into a nightmare for a San Francisco woman after she was assaulted in an unprovoked attack on the beach.
Ocean Beach has long been a place where Karla- who requested we only use her first name- has enjoyed.
"I was raised in San Francisco, not a lot of people can say they're native, but I am."
She and several friends were at Ocean Beach spending Saturday afternoon celebrating one of their daughter's birthday's with a picnic spread. But their day of sand and sun, according to Karla's friend Raji Pillai, quickly took a turn.
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"There was a man sitting about 30 feet away. He was talking gibberish he seemed agitated. With one sweep of the arm, he cleared all the food on the cooler...he took out a full can from the cooler and just held his arm back and hurled it." Says Pillai, who demonstrated how swiftly the hit happened.
The can, hit Karla straight in the face.
"She just staggered a few feet forward and collapsed to the ground," says Pillai.
Karla says she was in a state of shock. "When I was down I knew my nose was broken, I could feel the blood going down my throat."
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Karla also blacked out. Her nose was broken in several places and her eye swollen shut until Monday morning.
"When I could open it and see out of it I burst into tears ." She says.
SFPD arrived on the scene quickly and arrested 46-year-old Stephen Miller. They say the attack was unprovoked. But this experience illustrates a two-fold problem for the city. One, being safety.
"How about we don't let someone back on the street who is extremely dangerous?" says Karla.
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Pillai addressed the problem of needing more mental healthcare services.
"Not only should they be kept safe but the general public should be also kept safe," she says.
As Karla's physical and emotional wounds continue to heal, she doesn't have a solution on how to fix the city, but shares this wish for change.
"I would like to see SF be the amazing place I know it can be- it was when I was growing up."
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