Racial slurs leads to brutal attack on local San Francisco chef
Liquor store security cameras recorded the terrifying moment when Netflix chef Wendy Drew fought for her life. She was attacked in the Financial District by a man walking his dog, who had previously shouted a racial slur at her.
"This guy looks pretty normal, with this dog, walks by and he calls me the N-word, right? And I was like, excuse me, why are you calling me that? So he comes back and says what? Then he starts pummelling, and just knocks me down, said Drew.
The fighting escalated as Drew tried to block the man's jabs. Quick thinking led her to Drumm Liquor and Deli where she knew security cameras would capture the incident.
Footage shows her holding her attacker in place while shouting for customers to call the police. One man came forward to spray her assailant with pepper spray before exiting the store. Unfortunately for Drew, the man didn't respond to the spray at all.
"I started screaming, call 911 call 911 and I was holding the guy, and I'm like, I'm not letting you go. You're going to jail," she said.
Drew fought off her attacker for nearly 5 minutes. She tried blocking his exit until the police came, but he managed to shove her aside before they arrived. She chased her attacker up the dark street to a restaurant where horrified on-lookers saw her desperately try to keep her assailant from escaping.
A group of staff and customers from the restaurant raced to her rescue quickly pinning the man to the ground until police made it. Drew said her sister, Pam, who was in the restaurant at the time, estimated the police responded in six minutes.
"I got up, and I'm like, no, go after him. Wendy, just keep going after him," she said.
Police identified the man as 31-year-old Irvin Rivera-Lara. He was arrested on charges of assault likely to cause great bodily injury, committing a hate crime, and providing false information to a peace officer.
This isn't Rivera-Lara's first crime. He was booked on battery charges for attacking another chef outside of a restaurant last year. Drew and her twin sister, Pam, think the attacks are premeditated and motivated by hate.
"When he obviously sees Wendy, he sees a black woman, and what is the trigger word for black people, the n-word. So he's obviously doing things to trigger people's emotions, said Pam
Omar Idlabi, the owner of Drumm Liquor and Deli, said that incidents like these are not uncommon for his shop. While his store is a daily target of robberies and threats, he had never seen anything quite like what happened to Drew.
"I feel sorry for her. Really, very sorry," Idalbi said. "Like she's a lady and the guy, he should be in jail, he said.
Now that the incident is behind her, Drew and her sister are frightened, but more than that they're angry.
"You know, we know we've got this profile of who's gonna attack you, who's gonna cause you harm, but this guy did not fit that profile," she said.
While she recovers, Drew wants the city, and women especially, to heed her story and stay on alert.
