Hate can turn an ordinary encounter into something terrifyingly fast. For anyone who has ever had to wonder whether a stranger’s hostility might turn physical, two recent attacks on the West Coast are a grim reminder of how homophobia and hate can escalate. In Seattle, a woman allegedly bit a piece of another woman’s forehead after using racist and homophobic language. In San Jose, two men allegedly chased and repeatedly punched a college student after asking whether he was gay and shouting anti-gay slurs.
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The cases are different, but both involve allegations of violence directed at people after their attackers focused on race or sexual orientation. And both happened in places where the victims should have been able to simply go about their day.
A Random Seattle Attack Turned Brutal
A 36-year-old woman has been charged with second-degree assault after prosecutors say she used racist and homophobic language before biting a piece of flesh from another woman’s forehead in downtown Seattle.
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Charging documents filed by the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office identify the defendant as Kamilia Chadli. Police said the victim, Diana Gonzalez, suffered permanent injuries and required a skin graft to close the wound in the alleged hate attack. Seattle police described the incident as a violent hate crime attack.
The attack was reported around 3:45 p.m. Sept. 18 near Third Avenue and Marion Street. Gonzalez was walking toward a 7-Eleven near her workplace when, according to charging documents, she encountered Chadli.
“This was a totally random attack,” said Gonzalez. “She started yelling racist things after throwing trash and spitting on me. Then she bit my face — she bit a piece of my face off.”
According to prosecutors, Gonzalez told officers that Chadli threw a food wrapper at her. When Gonzalez asked why, Chadli allegedly yelled,
“You’re the inferior race,” used a homophobic slur and spit on her.
The two women were strangers.
“I don’t know this person,” said Gonzalez. “I’ve never seen them before in my life.”
Prosecutors allege Chadli then pulled Gonzalez to the ground and bit a roughly 1-inch-diameter piece of skin from her forehead.
A nearby worker witnessed the assault, intervened and followed Chadli toward the King County Courthouse. A King County marshal then detained her, according to charging documents. Responding officers found blood on the sidewalk and the piece of flesh in a storm drain, police said. Gonzalez later identified Chadli through the courthouse doors.
“That’s her, 100%,” Gonzalez told officers, according to court documents.
“I can’t believe she bit a piece of my face off,” said Gonzalez. “That’s the main thing that is still shocking. I can’t believe it.”
Seattle Fire evaluated Gonzalez before she was taken to Harborview Medical Center. She was scheduled for a skin graft Sept. 22, and prosecutors said she will have a permanent scar from the attack.
For Gonzalez, the randomness of the encounter appears to be part of what has made the experience especially frightening.
“I’m just concerned that she would do it again because it was so random,” said Gonzalez. “It didn’t make any sense.”
Chadli was arrested on suspicion of a hate crime offense and booked into the King County Jail. Prosecutors charged her with second-degree assault, alleging that she intentionally assaulted Gonzalez and recklessly inflicted substantial bodily harm. Prosecutors asked the court to maintain her bail at $150,000, citing the severity of the injuries and concerns about another violent offense.
“I would like for the charge not to be lessened,” said Gonzalez. “I would like that if she did take a plea, she would still have to serve a lengthy sentence and get additional therapy or help in jail or prison, just so she wouldn’t reoffend.”
San Jose Student Allegedly Chased and Beaten
Meanwhile, hundreds of miles south, prosecutors in California charged two men with felony assault with hate crime allegations after they allegedly attacked a San Jose State University student while shouting anti-gay slurs.
Josue Medina Flores, 19, and Christian Gabriel Nunez Petty, 20, neither of whom attend San Jose State, allegedly approached the student around 3:45 a.m. Sept. 19 while he was walking across campus with two female friends. Prosecutors say the men asked whether he was gay before shouting anti-gay slurs.
The student and his friends tried to continue walking, but prosecutors allege Flores and Nunez Petty ran after him and attacked him.
“They both used derogatory terms toward the victim’s sexual orientation,” Deputy District Attorney Dan Okonkwo told the press, “calling him out and then chasing him down and viciously beat him, punching him in the head multiple times and kicking him.”
According to prosecutors, the student was punched in the head more than two dozen times and kicked during the attack. One of his friends attempted to shield him and was allegedly struck as well. The assault was captured on university security video, and campus police arrested the suspects as they fled. The student was treated at a hospital and later released.
“These defendants didn’t just harm the victim in this case. They also harmed the entire community,” Deputy District Attorney Dan Okonkwo said at a press conference. “Not just other people who may or may not be gay, but also all of us are harmed. This is a vicious, vicious unprovoked attack, and there is no place for hate in our county.”
The suspects face felony assault charges with hate crime allegations.
“If you hurt someone because of their race, religion, gender, or sexuality, you will be arrested and prosecuted,” said District Attorney Jeff Rosen in a statement. “Tolerance and diversity are cherished values in this community. We back up them with one voice – and the full might of the law.”
San Jose State University also addressed the incident, saying that “while assaults are rare at SJSU, even one act of hate and violence is too many.”
The two suspects made their first court appearance Wednesday and remain in custody as the case moves through the court system. The charges are allegations, and they are presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
Hate Shouldn’t Be Part of the Commute
Neither case is a reason to look at an entire city and assume hate is waiting around every corner. But they are a reminder of something LGBTQ+ people already understand without needing a lecture: sometimes an ordinary interaction can become threatening simply because someone decides hate gives them permission to target you.
Gonzalez was walking to buy a drink. The San Jose State student was walking across campus with friends. Neither encounter began as a confrontation. In both cases, prosecutors say the victims became targets after the alleged attackers focused on race or sexual orientation. And that is perhaps the most unsettling common thread.
For LGBTQ+ people, being asked “Are you gay?” by a stranger is not automatically sinister. Most of the time, it is just an awkward question at best. But when that question is followed by slurs, pursuit and violence, it becomes something much darker.
No one should have to calculate whether answering honestly could turn a random encounter into a dangerous one.
The legal process will determine what happened in both cases and what consequences, if any, follow from the alleged hate attacks. But the allegations themselves are a sobering reminder that hate does not always announce itself with a manifesto. Sometimes it starts with a slur, a question, a piece of trash thrown at a stranger — and then escalates into something no one should have to survive.
Source: Komo, County of Santa Clara, and ABC 7