A Los Angeles woman who was attacked Tuesday afternoon in a Los Angeles parking garage believes the attack was racially motivated.
Quiggle Ignacio, a model and registered nurse, said the incident began while she was eating in her car at Eagle Rock Plaza.
“All of a sudden there was a lady that was pushing her shopping cart, grocery cart, and the baby was on the grocery cart, and she hit my car,” Ignacio told KTLA TV.
At first, Ignacio ignored the tapping until the woman, who was wearing a “Slay La Vie” T-shirt, started yelling at her.
Ignacio said she got out of her car to confront the woman and a man who was with her.
“Why are you yelling at me? I should be the one yelling at you because you hit my car,” she remembers saying to them.
Ignacio said the man started yelling racist comments to her.
“He said something about me being Asian,” she told CBS Los Angeles. ”[He said, ’You should go back to China and you’re chinky eyes, and you’re a stupid Asian, you should leave this country.’”
Ignacio said she tried to take a photo of their license plate, but the couple accused her of yelling at them in front of their child. She later posted a Facebook video showing the woman approaching her in a menacing fashion and grabbing her camera.
The man pulled his wife off of Ignacio and the couple drove away. Ignacio then drove to a police station and filed a report. Paramedics also examined her for injuries.
Ignacio posted photos on Facebook showing bruises on her face that she said came from the attack.
The physical attack was painful, but the racism behind it was especially hurtful, she said.
“I love being Filipino, I love being Asian and I share my values, but then when something like this happens it breaks your confidence,” Ignacio told CBS Los Angeles.
Ignacio also posted a photo of her alleged attacker in hopes someone can identify her to the police.
She says she’s scared of retaliation, but is sharing her story in hopes it will help prevent future attacks.
“I wants people to be aware that it happens, and there’s no reason to hurt anybody,” she told CBS Los Angeles.
- This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
