Woman plays detective to find attacker in South Los Angeles

SOUTH LOS ANGELES, Calif. (FOX 11) - Stacie McGinty was walking in an alley near her home on Valentine's Day. She was on the phone, telling her dad about a job interview that she thought went well for her.

Moments later, she was down on the ground and her head bleeding in multiple places.

She thought a man on a bike ran her down in what police say would be an accident, not a crime. The 28-year-old was later released from the hospital with 12 stitches on her forehead, a few more near her eyebrow and two on her upper lip.

She and her mother started to wonder if she had been attacked, and not accidentally hit by a cyclist.

They spotted security cameras on a church near the alley and the church gave them access to the video. You could see Stacie walking along and then a figure runs at her from the rear at full speed.

The hit took her down, her head slammed the cement block wall and an exposed metal post likely explains the gouge near her eye.

The video showed something else that added insult to injury; a woman with an umbrella walked by her as Stacie stumbled to the ground. According to Stacie, the woman asked if she was okay, but didn't stop to help or call police for her.

"You don't even have to stop if you're scared, but you could have called the police. Nobody should be that lady. If we're all that lady, we're lost," Stacie lamented.

FOX 11 talked to Stacie one week after the attack. As we interviewed her near the scene of the crime, her mother recognized the woman with the umbrella walking by.

Stacie's brother called out to her. She turned and walked back as Stacie asked her how she could just walk by without trying to help. The woman claimed she didn't hear her ask for help. Stacie pointed out she was bleeding profusely and the woman became agitated trying to defend her decision to keep walking.

Because of the security video, she was able to file a new complaint with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

The man who attacked her is on the video acting erratically, kicking trees, kicking a car and walking toward two girls in a way that might be considered threatening.

The area is rife with drug sellers, the drug addicted and the kind of crimes associated with that kind of activity.

As a result, Lt Richard Conti of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said detectives will get to her case, but she just might have to patient.