Former US Olympian Kim Glass is warning people to keep their heads on a swivel while out and about in Los Angeles after a man attacked her with a metal pipe. The 6-foot-3 volleyball player and 2008 Olympic silver medalist posted a series of videos to Instagram over the weekend, showing her with a blackened right eye that was swollen shut below a stitched-up gash, along with another gash on the bridge of her nose. She said she'd been saying goodbye to a friend after a lunch in downtown LA on Friday when a stranger, a "homeless man ... with some pretty hateful eyes," ran up with something in his hand.
"I turned to go tell my friend, 'I think something's wrong with him.'" But "before I knew it, a big metal bolt, like a pipe, hit me in my eye," said 37-year-old Glass, a Sports Illustrated model. "It happened so fast. He literally flung it from the street," she continued, adding she was knocked to the ground. TMZ obtained video of the aftermath, showing Glass moaning in pain on a sidewalk spattered with blood, feet away from the pinned-down suspect. Bystanders held the man at the intersection of South Olive and West 8th streets until police arrived and "he was taken into custody without incident," a Los Angeles Police Department rep tells CNN.
Semeon Tesfamariam, 51, booked on felony assault with a deadly weapon, is held without bail, per KTLA. Police initially described the weapon as an "unknown object." Glass was taken to a hospital, where she was found to have multiple fractures around her right eye. She said the vision in her eye would not be affected once the swelling goes down. "I have amazing friends and family around me and supporting me and that's been the best part," she said. But she warned others to "be safe." "You shouldn't have to be fearful when you walk but it's true … There's a lot of mentally ill people on these streets right now." (More assault stories.)
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