VIDEO: Brutal assault outside Lancaster bank

ByTim Rearden KABC logo
Thursday, February 25, 2016
VIDEO: Brutal assault outside Lancaster bank
The violent attack of a woman leaving a Lancaster bank was recorded on video.

LANCASTER, Calif. (KABC) -- Disturbing video captured the brutal assault of a woman leaving a Lancaster bank.

WARNING: The video in the player above may be disturbing to some people.

The video recorded on Feb. 17 showed the assault that took place at about 7 p.m. in a bank parking lot. The victim, 19-year-old Josselyn Montejo, spoke exclusively to ABC7 Eyewitness News about the attack.

Montejo said she was attacked by her ex-girlfriend and the friends of her ex-girlfriend as she left work.

"I started getting really dizzy," Montejo recalled, "I started feeling all the hits on my face."

The woman from Palmdale ended up on the ground, while the attackers continued the violent onslaught. A witness can be heard urging the women to get in the car and that they needed to leave.

"I felt like my body was going numb, I couldn't really register what was happening anymore," Montejo said.

The three suspects who attacked Montejo and two witnesses left her on the ground. Montejo said the incident started as a dispute over property she once shared with her ex-girlfriend.

"If you guys sat outside my job for 45 minutes and two people were recording, you guys knew this was going to happen," Montejo said.

To add insult to injury, Montejo said the suspects shared the video on social media to embarrass her.

"I want people to understand that it's not OK to humiliate a person like that," Montejo said.

Now Montejo hopes the suspects will face criminal prosecution, or else she fears they would be willing to commit similar violent acts.

"If the police let them go like this, they're going to think this is something they can continue doing and nothing is going to happen," Montejo said.

Watching the video for Montejo was hard, but she said the fear of being attacked again is much harder to cope with.

"I'm terrified to leave my house. I have to call somebody every time I leave because I'm so scared that I'm being followed," she described.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said it obtained the fight video and has pictures of Montejo's injuries as evidence. Deputies said two females were arrested, ages 20 and 17, and stated they could face charges of assault with a deadly weapon.

A third suspect, who is 25 years old, has been named and is not in custody yet, according to the sheriff's department. Deputies said two witnesses, ages 29 and 22, were with the suspects and one of them recorded the incident.