A Black chef featured in the Netflix series You Are What You Eat: A Twin Experiment was beaten in an apparent racially charged attack in San Francisco.
According to NBC Bay Area, Wendy Drew said she was leaving Cafe Terminus following a business meeting on Sunday (Sept. 1) when a man called her a racial slur.
“This guy, a regular-looking guy, walked by and called me the N-word,” Drew said.
The man hit her across the head after Drew asked him why he hurled the slur. In response, Drew pulled the suspect into the Drumm liquor store, where the confrontation continued.
Surveillance video shows Drew was held down and repeatedly punched by the suspect, who has been identified as Irvin Rivera-Lara. A customer pepper-sprayed Rivera-Lara as the struggle continued.
The suspect then attempted to flee the scene. Drew tried to stop him from leaving the store but was pushed aside.
“Call 911! I kept screaming. I said,’“You’re not getting away. You are going to jail today,'” Drew recalled.
Drew’s boyfriend and bystanders ran out of the store and held the man down until police arrived.
Rivera-Lara was arrested on charges of suspicion of assault likely to cause significant bodily injury, committing a hate crime, and providing false information to an officer.
Drew was taken to a hospital where she was treated for her injuries including a gash near her eye.
“I’m really grateful that although I was being beaten, I was thinking, ‘How do I get this person off the streets?'” she said.
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