I was in Simi Valley today and happened to witness an assault on a young girl. I was taking two of my project leads out to lunch at Macaroni Grill. I pulled into a stall in the parking lot and heard a girl screaming and a man yelling as I exited my truck. My colleague stepped out of the passenger door and saw an older man punch a young girl in the face. By the time I cleared the back of my truck, the girl was on the ground and the assailant was walking away. A went to her aid, my colleague followed the assailant. We both called 911.
The girls was shaken up but not hurt too badly. She was an older teen, and weighted all of 90 pounds. Her assailant was an adult male weighing about 230. He was upset because she was placing a flier on his new Lexus. When he demanded it be removed, he became angry at how she removed the flier. They argued. He grabbed her and pinned her to the car. She struggled. He hit her. There were two witnesses who were able to tell the police the whole story.
I realized a few things after thinking about the incident. I was more concerned about the girl’s health than I was about paying attention to details. When the 911 operator asked for a description, all I was able to say was he was an older man, possibly 60. I missed other things too. Like the fact that there were two men involved in the assault. I completely missed it. One guy just stood by and watched, they both walked away.
The assailant eventually came back. My colleague had followed him to the threshold of a store and guilted him into coming back. He took pictures too, and made an outline of his notes while it was fresh his mind. When the assailant returned, I position myself in between him and the girl until the police arrived. I put on my best badass facial expression and tried to act tough, but I was shaking inside.
I was happy to see the police arrive. The incident took place all of 500 yards from the police station, so the response was fast. The police eventually arrested the bully. We all gave statements or our contact info. An hour after it all started, we were working of the adrenalin rush over a nice lunch.
I don’t make this stuff up. It happens to me all the time.
