Caught on camera: Woman attacks 13-year-old girl in Lemoore
- Police in Lemoore are looking for a woman who they believe attacked a 13-year-old girl in an ugly street fight caught on camera. Investigators say the fight happened over a boy. The 13-year-old victim and her mom talked exclusively to Action News about the incident.
** WARNING: This footage contains material that some viewers may find disturbing due to explicit language and/or the graphic nature of the material. **
Someone who was at the scene, watching the fight, filmed the whole thing. As the cellphone video starts, you can clearly see this woman, who police say is the suspect, getting encouragement from friends as they tell her to attack a 13-year old girl.
"In the video, you can see somebody who initiated it, 'Go ahead and slap that' and some words," said Jennifer Espinoza, the victim's mother.
"I was on the phone with my mom because I saw adults and I was telling her to hurry because I didn't know what was going to happen. I was scared that I was going to get jumped, and I was by myself, so I didn't know what to do," said Myakha Espinoza, the victim.
After the suspect lunges at Myakha, the two struggle on the ground for more than 30 seconds before getting up and separating. Then the suspect attacks her again. The Lemoore Police Department is investigating the incident as a felony assault.
"We've been given a name of the suspect that was actually involved in the fight, although at this time we're not 100 percent certain that that is the true name of the person involved, so we're still trying to identify her," said Cmdr. Steve Rossi.
Police say the fight, which happened on a quiet intersection, stemmed from an argument between two teenage girls over a boy. Myakha says her name was in the phone belonging to the boyfriend of a 15-year-old girl. Myakha says the girl wanted to fight her but she initially declined and then ultimately agreed to it in order to stop the threats.
The 15-year-old girl's mother is seen and heard on the video, telling the suspect to slap the victim. Afterwards, Jennifer Espinoza says she had to take her daughter to get medical help.
"I took her to the ER because she was complaining of a headache, she was throwing up, she ended up with a concussion and a sprained elbow with contusions," said Espinoza.
Since the fight, Myakha has moved out of town -- scared she could be the victim of more violence.
"Right after the incident happened I got a whole bunch of threats from their friends, they called me and their families saying, 'I wanna fight you. We're going to drive by your house and jump you.' So I was scared. I didn't know what to do. The whole time I stayed in my house and I didn't go to school because I was scared that they were going to fight me," the 13-year-old said.
Lemoore police say it's not often they get called to fights this severe and are thankful they have video of the attack and what happened before it. If you know who the suspect is, you're asked to call the Lemoore Police Department.
