CHICAGO (WBBM/WGN/CNN) – Saying he was sorry, a man in Chicago turned himself in after surveillance video of him punching a security guard in the face went viral.
Security guard Zoa Stigler mustered up her strength to identify the man who came forward and admitted to throwing a water bottle at her then violently punching her in the face.
“It does affect me. I just try to be strong for my daughters,” Stigler said.
The incident was captured on security footage at a residential building in Chicago early Sunday morning where Stigler was on duty.
The video shows a man walking down the street then sitting down outside Stigler’s building. The woman goes to check on him, realizes he’s sick and asks if he needs help.
A short time later, the man starts vomiting, so Stigler goes inside to get a mop bucket.
The man’s friends are standing nearby, and when she returns with the mop, Stigler asks the group to leave. Words are exchanged.
As the group of four walks off, the man, who had been doubled over on the ground a few minutes earlier, throws a water bottle at Stigler then punches her in the face.
The group strolls off.
“Why would you hit a human being in the face that's trying to assist you, that's trying to help you?” Stigler said.
The guard sustained injuries to an eye socket and her nose.
Crisis responder Dawn Valenti says the man, who is in his 20s and in the military, turned himself in because he knew he shouldn’t have hit the guard. She says he was under the influence of alcohol.
“I really can’t express how sorry he is. If he could apologize to the woman, he would,” Valenti said.
The man is not allowed to approach Stigler during the investigation.
Stigler is not ready to accept the apology.
“You can’t be too sorry because you walked away,” she said.
However, she says she does forgive the man.
“I am a Christian woman, and you’re supposed to forgive anybody that wrongs you,” Stigler said.
Stigler, a mother of two, says she’s grateful she is alive, even though she has a black eye and may have to have surgery.
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