Cops Probe Viral Video Of Attacks On Woman

10/13 UPDATE: Cops arrest man, 21, seen in vile viral video

OCTOBER 11--Police are reviewing a viral video that shows unprovoked attacks on a confused California woman who was battered as she wandered around a strip mall.

The 1:51 video, which first surfaced yesterday afternoon on the Worldstar Hip Hop web site, appears to have been shot recently at a shopping center on Mack Road and Center Parkway in Sacramento.

When the clip was first posted, the site reported that it was submitted by “Dylan G The Kid.” However, after the video began to go viral, the credit was abruptly changed to “Rhekidd.”

At the video’s outset, the woman is seen pacing aimlessly in front of a doughnut shop. A dreadlocked young man (seen at right) wearing a New York Yankees cap looms nearby as his snickering friend films the action.

At about the 1:00 mark, the man lunges at the woman, punching her in the face with his left fist. This elicits gales of laughter from the cameraman, who was patiently waiting for his friend to pounce. The assailant is seen doubled over in laughter.

When the woman begins to run after her attacker, the camerman, laughing hysterically, chases them down a walkway. The assailant, though, disappears from the camera’s view.

At this point, the woman apparently mistakes a second, much stockier man--who was also doubled over laughing--as her attacker. She demands, “Why you slapping me?” The man responds by sucker punching the woman with a roundhouse left. The vicious blow knocked the woman off her feet, leaving her crumpled on the pavement.

Pictured at left, the second assailant--wearing an oversize blue t-shirt and ground-scraping shorts--walks right past the cameraman after dropping the woman. He is wearing some kind of lanyard around his neck.

Sacramento Police Department Sergeant Andrew Pettit told TSG that he was forwarding the video to detectives to determine whether they were aware of the assaults.

UPDATE: Pettit said that dispatch records indicate that the incident occurred October 1. A shop owner called 911 to report that some men had filmed themselves tormenting and striking a woman. When officers arrived at the strip mall, the suspects had already run across the street to an apartment complex.

The victim declined medical attention and said that she did not want to file a report, said Pettit. In light of the video’s surfacing, detectives will now seek to identify the two men seen punching the woman. Investigators will then create a crime report that will be forwarded to prosecutors for review (or which might serve as the basis for the issuance of arrest warrants for assault).