HILLSBORO, Ore. (KOIN) — A Hillsboro woman’s trip to a local Safeway the day after Donald Trump’s presidential victory is something she won’t soon forget.
Kara Stevens told KOIN 6 News she hopes no one has to go through what she did.
“The only thing I kept thinking to myself is, ‘This is how my life is going to end,’ and ‘I don’t deserve this,'” Stevens said.
She said she was walking through the Safeway parking lot Wednesday night when she suddenly felt pain in her abdomen. Out of nowhere, she said, she was hit with a brick. Soon after, she started to have difficulty breathing.
“I just thought to myself, if I pass out from not being able to breathe and I hit the ground, it’s over,” Stevens recalled.
As she struggled with the pain, Stevens said she could hear people yelling. The words her attackers used shocked her.
“I heard someone yell ‘Stupid n***** b****,'” she said. “Then they yelled ‘Are you scared? Are you scared now? Because you should be,’ and then they said ‘Now we got a president who finally feels how we feel.'”
Stevens said the 3 men in their 30s and 40s told her they’d rape her and even made references to President-elect Donald Trump.
When they drove off, Stevens said no one stepped in to help.
She said she went back to her apartment roughly a mile away before going to the ER for treatment. Doctors there reportedly told her she had broken ribs.
In the face of such hate, Stevens is speaking up.
She said now is the time to stand up and come together to combat racism.
“You’re going to have to bring a whole lot more than a brick to break me,” Stevens said. “This is a real thing… this isn’t a joke. A lot of people are just in denial about it.”
She said the harsh reality of racism can’t be denied, but must be faced head-on.
“When people admit that it’s there, it’s going to be a heck of a lot easier for us to come together and fix it and come together,” Stevens said.
While she said she will recover physically, emotionally she may never be the same.
Hillsboro Police Dept. confirms officers took a report about the incident. Officers will investigate Stevens again sometime this week and hope to “get to the bottom of it.”
Police confirm the Safeway has no safety cameras in its parking lot.
So far, no one has come forward saying they witnessed the attack, but police said people at the scene “may not have known a crime was taking a place.”
Investigators hope to get a better suspect description.
KOIN 6 News will continue to follow this story.
Filed under: Crime, Local News, Oregon, Top Video, Washington County
