MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – A mother and daughter were left badly bruised after being attacked on Miami Beach.
A Saturday stroll on South Beach would prove to be anything but normal when a man sitting at a bus stop on Collins Avenue and 24th Street began harassing Daniella Bonilla and her 59-year-old mother in a verbal attack she said was unprovoked.
"He looks at us, 'All you (expletives) need to learn how to speak English,'" Bonilla said.
The man allegedly taunted them and called them homophobic slurs, but Bonilla had had enough.
"I kind of look at him and say, 'You know, you should be ashamed of yourself. You're, like, a despicable person. It's people like you that are ruining our country,'" Bonilla said.
That's when she said the man snapped and physically attacked them.
"He kind of jumps up from where he's at and runs over here, literally spits in my face, then he punches me in my chest," Bonilla said. "He goes to punch my mom. She blocks it with her arm."
Bonilla then threatened to call the cops. She said the man then bolted across the street and tried to catch a bus. When he couldn't get on, he came back for more.
"And tried to lunge at me again, but it was these men who came out of nowhere who protected me from getting attacked again," Bonilla said.
The men tried to hold him down to wait for the cops, but he got away, leaving Bonilla and her mom shaken but grateful it wasn't worse.
"I was just really shocked," Bonilla said. "I never thought this could happen to me in broad daylight."