Last Updated on November 13, 2019
A woman has spoken about an incident in April where a homeless man threw a bucket of hot diarrhea over here near the Hollywood Walk of Fame in California.
Heidi van Tassel had just finished eating at a Thai restaurant near the Hollywood Walk of Fame when Jere Blessings, a homeless man from California, threw a bucket of hot diarrhea all over her.
Van Tassel spoke to local news about the attack:
It was diarrhea. Hot liquid. I was soaked, and it was coming off my eyelashes and into my eyes. Paramedics who came to treat me said there was so much of it on me, that it looked like the man was saving it up for a month.
It was all inside my car because it was so much. He just kept pouring it and splattering it all over me… It’s so traumatic. I will never, ever, forget his face… The PTSD that I’m dealing with is beyond anything that I’ve ever felt. There needs to be some kind of help for the victims of these crimes… It was awful, it changed my life.
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She was rushed to the Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital, and had to be tested for any infectious diseases that might have been in the diarrhea. She will have to be re-tested every few months just in case.
Security cameras and LAPD body cameras captured footage of the attack, but van Tassel said the LAPD refused to release it to her.
Blessings was charged with battery, and was sent to jail before being transferred to a mental health facility. Court records described him as suffering from “schizophrenia and psychiatric disorders.” He was released from the facility back into the community in August, something that worries van Tassel.
“What’s the next thing he’s going to do somebody? If he would’ve had a knife, for sure he would’ve stabbed me,” she said, but emphasized that she thinks “he doesn’t need jail time [but instead] needs mental health care.” Despite the attack, she said she still has empathy for him.
