Hate crime is alleged in Playa del Rey
Woman says she was attacked after a Little League event.
A Los Angeles woman was beaten and choked by a white couple who repeatedly hurled racial slurs at her after attending a fundraiser for a Playa del Rey Little League this year, she and her attorneys said Wednesday.
Katrina Ross, a black woman from the Playa del Rey area, said she was at a fundraising event for the Del Rey American Little League in Westchester when the couple began harassing her.
As she was leaving the event around midnight April 29, she said, the husband and wife attacked her outside the Westchester Elk’s Lodge. Ross said she was beaten, choked and kicked, causing her to bleed from the head. She said the couple repeatedly used a racial slur while attacking her.
Ross said she was treated for a concussion and has suffered short-term memory loss since the attack. The mother of two said she did not know the couple and described the assault as “unprovoked.”
“How much hate do you
have in your heart?” she asked, speaking through tears during a news conference in downtown Los Angeles.
Officers responded to the scene and took a report, said Capt. Patricia Sandoval, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Police Department. She could not comment on the extent of Ross’ injuries or the hate crime allegations.
An LAPD incident report provided by Ross’ attorneys described the attack as battery. According to the report, Ross said she was “punched and kicked” and suffered “visible injuries.”
The report made no mention of the allegation that a hate crime had taken place
or the use of slurs.
The Del Rey American Little League did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. An employee at the Elk’s Lodge in Westchester referred questions to a manager who did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Ross, whose 9-year-old son played in the league, was suspended from all league events as a result of the incident, according to a letter she received from the Del Rey American Little League. The league told Ross that her son could play out the season as long as she did not attend league events, but she chose to pull him from the team.
“I’m not going to let him play in a league that has no respect for who he is,” Ross said Wednesday.
Attorneys Britany Engelman and Rodney Diggs, who are representing Ross, criticized the league for failing to provide security at the event, and demanded the LAPD present a case to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office for filing. The attorneys said there were several independent witnesses to the attack and questioned why the LAPD has yet to make an arrest.
Engelman said she was told by LAPD officials that the case is being investigated as a hate crime.
Ross said the league asked her to meet with the husband and wife she accused of assaulting her in order to resolve the issue.
“This was a crime. They are volunteer parents. They are not going to decide what happens here,” she said.
Ross said her son played in the league for four years, and she had never experienced racial vitriol in all that time. She said she recognized the woman involved in the attack as the parent of another child in the league but had never interacted with her before.