DEARBORN, MI (WDIV/CNN) – The victim and her attorney say the woman will have emotional distress for years to come in what they think may have been a religiously motivated attack.
After she thought she broke her jaw in a fall on the ice, the 19-year-old victim checked into the Beaumont Dearborn emergency room on Feb. 10.
The woman was standing at the receptionist desk when a man waiting in the lobby swiftly moved toward her from behind and began punching her in the head.
“She’s completely blind-sided. She has no idea that she’s going to get attacked while she’s waiting at the front desk. She gets sucker-punched, and she gets literally knocked out,” said the victim’s attorney, Majed Moughni.
Even as the woman fell to the ground, the attacker kept hitting her until he was pulled away by a hospital security guard.
Police identified the attacker as John Deliz, who had been discharged from the hospital earlier that day. Reports say he accosted other patients, asking for cigarettes and attempting to wander down hallways.
Security told Deliz if he was going to wait in the lobby for a ride, he had to sit down and leave other patients alone.
The victim says she’s psychologically injured from the attack. She’s Muslim and wears a hijab, so she and her attorney are afraid her clothing may have caused Deliz to attack.
Ultimately, Moughni says they don’t know if that was the case.
Nevertheless, the attorney says the hospital is responsible for the attack.
“You would expect the hospital to be one of the safest places on Earth,” Moughni said. “They knew very well that this patient of theirs had issues, and they released them.”
The victim is suing the hospital, saying she will have emotional distress for years to come.
Copyright 2018 WDIV, Surveillance video, Macomb County Sheriff Office via CNN. All rights reserved.
