Suspect lived in nearby shelter and had documented mental health history
A Seattle woman will need surgery for a gnarly wound after a stranger who called her “an inferior race” took a bite of flesh from her forehead in a surprise attack about a block from Seattle City Hall on September 18, The Guardian reported, citing court records and police accounts.
The victim, Diana Gonzalez, 36, was walking to a convenience store when the alleged assailant, identified by prosecutors as Kamilia Chadli, threw a food wrapper at her, Gonzalez told Seattle police. After Gonzalez asked the woman why she had done that, Chadli allegedly yelled, “You’re the inferior race,” and used a homophobic slur before spitting on Gonzalez and dragging her to the ground. Chadli then sank her teeth into Gonzalez’s forehead and gnawed out a 1-inch-diameter chunk of flesh, according to the account reported by The Guardian.
“It looks like a zombie bite in a movie that you would see – like it’s a full circle,” Gonzalez told KOMO-TV, a Seattle ABC affiliate, wearing a bandage on her forehead. “This is my face. I’m going to have a scar permanently.” Officers who responded to the scene said they found a piece of the victim’s flesh the suspect spat into a grate.
Chadli has been charged with second-degree assault, a felony, and is detained with bail set at $150,000. Her arraignment has been scheduled for Monday, according to jail records cited by The Guardian. Chadli allegedly fled the scene but was chased by a witness who flagged down a marshal at a nearby courthouse. A hate crime investigation is also under way, the jail records show.
“Though a hate crime is not charged now, that charge may still be added later in the case if the evidence can meet the burden required by state law – which is often higher than what people understandably think the proof burden is,” the King County prosecutor’s office said in a statement to KIRO 7 News, Seattle’s CBS affiliate.
Gonzalez said she learned from a police report that the woman was unhoused. Court documents reviewed by KOMO-TV indicated Chadli was living in a shelter across the street from the crime scene, and police reports from prior encounters with officers described her as having a “history of mental health and substance abuse issues.”
Gonzalez noted that she and Chadli, who is the same age, share a similar complexion and both have curly hair. Gonzalez said she asked Chadli whether she thought she was white or Black, and Chadli responded, “I don’t care,” before continuing to repeat her racist remarks.