A chef starring in a Netflix soap opera was left with a broken nose and a severe eye injury after bravely defending himself against a homeless man who hurled racial slurs at him and punched him in a violent brawl caught on camera.
Security camera footage captured the terrifying moment Wendy Drew, appearing on the show “You Are What You Eat: The Twins Experiment,” was confronted at a liquor store in downtown San Francisco on September 1.
“This guy, a normal looking guy, walked by and called me the N-word,” Drew said. He told NBC Bay Area The perpetrator was walking his dog.
“I said, 'Why are you calling me that? Why?' And he turned around and started hitting me in the head. He hit me in the head about three times. I was like, 'You're not going to get away with hitting me.'” Drew also spoke to the San Francisco Standard.
Drew pushed the man into a liquor store, where the two got into an argument and Drew urged bystanders to call 911.
“I had him in a bear hug, I had both my paws on him, but he kept trying to get away,” she told the outlet. “His dog came towards me and I thought the dog was going to bite me but the poor dog was just licking my face. When I let up he started punching me in the face multiple times.”
Surveillance footage obtained by the Standard shows Drew fighting with a man police identified as Irvin Rivera Lara, 31, a homeless man with a history of violent crimes who is now facing hate crime charges.
When a customer tried to intervene and spray Rivera-Lara with pepper spray, Rivera-Lara pinned Drew to the floor and punched him repeatedly, while Rivera-Lara's dog ran around the restaurant and at one point licked the chef under attack.
When the two finally get to their feet, Rivera Lara can be seen on top of Drew, landing a barrage of hard punches to her face.
After she got up, Drew tried to stop Rivera-Lara from leaving the store, but Drew pushed her away and Rivera-Lara was held outside the store until police arrived.
Drew told the outlet that his attacker looked like a “tech bro” wearing a hoodie, but turned out to be homeless and with a criminal record.
“He just looked like someone taking his dog for a walk,” Drew said. “I could tell he was homeless. On the surface he didn't seem like he had any mental issues.”
Rivera Lara was arrested on suspicion of assault with intent to commit serious bodily injury, a hate crime and providing false information to a police officer.
Last year, he was arrested for allegedly assaulting a sandwich shop owner who confronted him about urinating in a trash can near his restaurant.
Drew showed off his harrowing injuries, including a large cut on his face that had to be glued shut.
“I also suffered a concussion and a broken nose. I may need surgery but that's not yet decided,” she said, adding that she also had a tetanus shot.
District Attorney Brooke Jenkins formally charged Rivera-Lara on Thursday with assault likely to result in serious bodily injury and assault with serious bodily injury, including a special charge that the incident was a hate crime.
“Hate crimes have no place in our communities and must be swiftly addressed by our criminal justice system,” Jenkins said in a statement.
“Attacks like these are not only degrading and degrading to individuals, they destabilize entire communities, and I will do everything in my power to ensure accountability and justice is achieved in this case.”
