"It melted my clothes off": Teen survives acid attack in Texas
DALLAS -- A Dallas teenager who survived a horrific acid attack hopes police will catch her assailant, CBS DFW reports.
"It melted my clothes off. I was in so much pain," 17-year-old Alma said from her hospital room where she's been recovering for more than a week.
At 1 a.m. on Father's Day, she came home from work with her mom when they noticed their front porch light was out.
"I see, like, this man just standing in front of me with a ski mask and a red jacket," she said. "I think it was a red hoodie, and he just like, he had a cup and he just threw it at me."
Acid immediately began to eat away at her skin. The acid mainly landed on her back but it also burned her chest. Alma's attacker went after her twice, the second time, hurling acid at her face.
"On my chest, on my back, on my eye and on my face a little bit and then my… my ear," she remembered.
Alma's mother and brother were both with her during the attack. Her little brother was also splashed with acid and spent a day in the hospital with minor burns. Alma's mother said she was hysterical during the attack, but was able to remember there was a kiddie pool close by. She dunked Alma in the water, trying her best to wash away the acid.
Alma has had several surgeries at Parkland Hospital and skin grafts to help her heal. Soon, she hopes to be well enough to learn to walk again and says she's recovering faster than doctors expected, just in time for her senior year.
"I might not look the same, but not that bad," she said.
She doesn't know exactly who attacked her, but she suspects she knows them. The attacker wrote this message on her house: "Alma, [expletive] n-word [expletive] love [expletive]."
"I believe in karma. So now they're going to get it 10 times worse," she said.
Dallas police are asking anyone with information to contact Detective M. Bailey at 214-671-3621 or B. Billings 214- 671-3083 with the Dallas Police Department Assaults Unit.