Single mom knocked out cold in Cincinnati mob attack breaks silence
'I want to say thank you to everyone for all of the love and support. It's definitely what's keeping me going. And you have just brought back faith in humanity,' said the local woman — identified only as Holly — through tears on social media.
Holly, who was brutally attacked by a gang of thugs in a caught-on-camera incident last month, has broken her silence.
'It's been very, very hard, and I'm still recovering. I still have a very bad brain trauma,' Holly said, her right eye still blackened and her face covered in yellow bruising from the attack.
Viral video of the street brawl showed a group of mostly black men surrounding Holly and an unidentified man, both of whom are white.
Holly was knocked unconscious as a mob descended on her.
One of the alleged assailants, Montianez Merriweather, 34, has claimed he was called racial slurs and spat on in the lead-up to the beatdown.
The two victims were punched and stomped on as they cowered on the ground, with blood pouring from Holly's mouth.
Merriweather, Jermaine Matthews, 39, and bystander Dekyra Vernon, 24 — believed to be the woman who sucker-punched Holly in the back of the head before a man slugged her directly in the face — were among the alleged assailants arrested and charged with felonious assault, assault and aggravated riot.
'She just interjected herself into a brawl on the street,' Cincinnati Police Detective Barney Blank said of the female suspect Vernon, Cincinnati.com reported.
Family members of the alleged assailants have since attempted to make the street rampage into a racial issue, claiming the only reason it drew so much attention and outrage was because of the skin color of those involved.
'If it was an African American woman who got knocked out … we wouldn't have been going through all this,' said an unidentified loved one of Merriweather, whom cops accused of coordinating the 'ambush' attack, to WLWT outside the local courthouse.
Holly, who suffered brain trauma in addition to severe facial bruising, said her recovery has been 'very, very hard,' and tearfully thanked those who have contributed to her GiveSendGo fundraiser, which so far has raised more than $170,000.
'God bless you all. Thank you,' she said.
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