An assault captured on video shows a woman who finished using the bathroom at a Chicago-area gas station being repeatedly punched in the head by a male attendant as she tried to leave.
Nakeyah Smith slumps in front of a shelf as the employee, dressed in a neon visibility jacket, strikes her in the head.
‘Open the door!’ someone screams frantically in the video, which was filmed by a stranger and obtained by WBBM in Chicago.
The employee turned himself in two days after the incident, which sparked protests
An attendant repeatedly punches Nakeyah Smith in the head in video shot by a stranger
‘Every time I close my eyes to go to sleep, that’s just all I see,’ Smith told the television station.
It is unclear from the report when the assault took place, though the attendant responsible for the attack turned himself in to Dolton police Tuesday afternoon.
Smith says she asked the man if she could use the bathroom at the 24-hour Shell gas station on 1445 E. Sibley Boulevard, 20 miles south of downtown Chicago.
He said no, but Smith went in after getting the OK from a female employee.
‘She let me go to the bathroom,’ she said.
Later, ‘I hear him come from behind the counter and go to lock the door.’
Smith says she was trying to leave after using the bathroom when the employee attacked her
‘Every time I close my eyes to go to sleep, that’s just all I see,’ she told WBBM in Chicago
The incident took place at a Shell gas station in Dolton, about 20 miles south of Chicago
She wet herself out of fear of what he might do next.
‘It’s a medical condition. I can’t control it all the time,’ Smith said.
When she went to unlock the door, ‘he pushed me, I pushed him back,’ Smith said.
‘So I continued to let myself out and he started hitting me.’
The Dolton Police Department did not respond to requests for an incident report from DailyMail.com. An employee said the department only accepts faxed requests.
The video begins with the attendant grabbing Smith from the back as she tries to writhe out of his grip.
While the man assaults her, the female employee watches from behind a door as Smith’s friends scream outside.
They eventually broke the front door glass and got her to safety, according to WBBM.
‘Those were blows,’ Smith’s mother Tene said. ‘He attacked her.’
By 10pm Wednesday, the gas station was closed after residents protested outside, with one woman holding a sign reading, ‘#Justice4Keyah.’
Others had complained about the attendant before, according to the station.
‘When you get complaints, check into those complaints,’ Tene said.
Dolton Mayor Tiffany Henyard said she was ‘personally saddened’ after watching the video
Dolton Mayor Tiffany Henyard released a statement about the incident on her Facebook page Thursday.
‘I am personally saddened, hurt, and angry after viewing this horrifying video. Before any title I may have, I am a black woman first. This young lady’s pain is also my pain,’ she said.
Henyard added that she ordered the chief of police to work closely with the Cook County State’s Attorney to make sure that ‘proper’ charges are brought against the attendant.
‘This incident speaks directly to the issue of violence against women in this country. My heart hurts for this young woman. I am praying not only that she heals from the injuries she has suffered, but moreover the mental aspects in which she will now have to endure.’