Samantha Baez-Vargas is speaking out after a crowbar-wielding attacker shattered her car and left her with bite marks and bruises during a predawn road-rage confrontation in South Los Angeles.
Baez-Vargas, of South LA, told Fox 11 the encounter began around 4 a.m. Saturday when she and another driver became stuck on a narrow one-way street, each unable to pass. She said she asked the other woman to back up because she was going the wrong direction. Instead, the woman retrieved a crowbar and walked toward Baez-Vargas’ vehicle.
Video captured the suspect approaching calmly before smashing the headlights, windshield and driver’s-side window. “Are you deada–? What’s wrong with you?” someone can be heard screaming in the background footage.
When Baez-Vargas exited her car, the suspect allegedly attacked her directly with the weapon and repeatedly attempted to bite her. Baez-Vargas showed the station bruises across her body, including marks that appeared consistent with bites.
“I didn’t know how to react. I was shocked. I didn’t know how to defend myself,” she told Fox 11. “After the fact, I was in the hospital. I felt like I could have lost my life.”
She continued, “I thought she would stop and she didn’t. She smacked me in the head with the crowbar at that point, and she snatched my phone out of my hand.”
The footage has been turned over to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, which confirmed investigators have identified the suspect and are actively working to locate her. “South Los Angeles Station detectives have been actively investigating this case and have positively identified the suspect. Detectives are currently working to locate and apprehend her,” the department said in a statement.
Baez-Vargas said the incident has left her deeply shaken. Her mother, Elizabeth Vargas, is now appealing for public assistance in bringing the attacker to justice.
“Please do your job. This evil can’t be out there,” the mother said.
The California Post reached out to the sheriff’s department for additional details regarding the suspect’s identity, but no further information was immediately released.