An Asian woman’s disturbing description of being randomly attacked by a drug addict outside a Long Island City restaurant has gone viral — as she’s left terrified after the shocking incident.
Chinese immigrant Runing Lao, 30, told The Post she’s scared to go back to work since the surprise attack as she left the Chipotle near the corner of Purves Street and Jackson Avenue at about 1 p.m. on July 17.
“I was maybe five or 10 steps away from Chipotle … and this woman just starts to beat me for no reason,” Lao, who works in real estate, said in a Tuesday interview.
“So I was like, ‘What’s going on? What happened?’” she continued. “And then I instantly started yelling, ‘Help me!’ I felt really shocked.”
Her attacker — who cops later identified as Adriana Garcia, 34, of Queens — seized Lao’s umbrella, broke it in half and beat her with it as she scrambled to defend herself.
“The umbrella is not super strong, but that kind of surprised me,” she said.
But fortunately, a good Samaritan did eventually step in.
“It was just a spur of the moment — I saw it and just reacted,” Jerome David, a 56-year-old emergency management worker, said on Tuesday.
David said he watched as Garcia seemed to purposely bump into Lao, then immediately launched her attack on the stunned woman.
“Before Lao even got the chance to say I’m sorry or anything, the woman up and punched her in the face,” David said.
“At first I thought it was a prank — like that ‘Punk’d’ show they do,” he said. “But when I saw [Garcia] break the umbrella and hit her in the face, with blood gushing down, I was like, ‘Wow, what the?’”
David said he grabbed Garcia, pushed her against the wall and held her hands. Garcia swung wildly anyway, hitting him on the side of his face.
So he chucked her to the ground and tried to keep her there, he said. The assailant managed to get up and run away, so he pinned her to the median on Queens Boulevard and kept her there until the cops came, the Samaritan said.
The assault left Lao with bleeding cuts and scratches on her face. EMS workers brought her to the hospital, where she was treated and released, according to the NYPD.
The Queens District Attorney’s Office later charged Garcia with two counts of assault — new additions to a lengthy rap sheet that includes a July 4 arrest for slashing someone in the face with a razor blade during an argument over some crack cocaine, police sources said.
She also has eight other prior arrests, according to sources.
A judge set bail at $5,000 cash/bond at her July 18 arraignment. Her next court date is July 29, according to the DA’s office.
Meanwhile, Lao has been left in fear following the attack — even as she’s speaking out about the crime.
“I’m terrified to go back to my work anytime soon,” a bandaged Lao said in a now-viral Instagram video. “And why me? Why Asian women? Is it because I’m short, I’m skinny, I’m polite?”
Lao — who came to the United States a decade ago to earn her bachelor’s and master’s degrees — has been staying with female friends in the days since the attack.
That has helped calm her nerves, she added.
But still, she believes something about the Big Apple has soured since the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I have been in New York for almost 10 years, and at the beginning, there wasn’t so many homeless people or illegal immigrants,” she said. “But now, it’s so much more. And I honestly don’t think the system is doing a good job [regarding] how to arrange them, how to make them get educated and find a job.
“It just doesn’t feel safe for a normal citizen, especially a weaker, smaller size woman.”
David — the man who helped save her — said he invested in Long Island City because of its peace and quiet, he said. But after five years in the neighborhood he regrets it — and claims he’s watched as the area has been hit with prostitution, robberies and homelessness.
“They’ve put up several different shelters, which I have no problem with,” he said. “But the problem I have is that half of them will be sleeping in the park or on the benches out there.
“The neighborhood is going downhill. It’s getting out of hand,” he continued. “I hope Gov. Hochul, Mayor Adams, the police do something.
“You just want to survive in New York City, not get hurt.”