A California Pilates instructor and former Survivor contestant was beaten with a metal baton by a homeless woman with prior assaults on her record.
Michelle Yi, 37, was opening her Pilates studio where she's a teacher just before 6am Thursday, when she noticed a disheveled woman nearing the front door.
'She was yelling all sorts of things like, 'You stole my identity' and, 'You're a prostitute,'' said Yi, who competed on the 2007 Fiji-based 14th season of the reality staple.
'Santa Monica has a homeless problem, and I've dealt with this type of thing before. So I told her, 'Ma'am, you can't be here. You need to leave.''
The woman then lunged at Yi with a knife and a metal baton, she claims. She then stabbed her in the left bicep.
'And then she hit me on the right hand with the baton. My Apple Watch shattered.'
Michelle Yi, a California Pilates instructor who once competed on a season of CBS' Survivor, was recently attacked by a homeless person
Yi, who competed on the Fiji-set 14th season of Survivor, was attacked by a woman when opening her studio to students on Thursday
The attack comes as southern California continues to deal with a devastating homeless problem
The woman followed up by hitting her on the head with the baton. Yi says that her face split open and 'blood was everywhere.'
Yi says that one of her students immediately dialed 911 but only received a message saying operators were busy. They eventually got her help by flagging down a police car.
'When we arrived, the suspect was still on the scene,' said Lieutenant Rudy Flores, a spokesman for the Santa Monica Police Department. 'The officers took her into custody and interviewed the victims and the witnesses.'
Yi was hospitalized and received several stitches to her face but suffered no fractures, an X-ray determined.
She remains a little confused as to why this happened to her but suspects race may play a part in the attacks.
'I can't say why she attacked me, of all people,' says Yi. 'But she was a white lady who attacked three people that morning. Another victim was an elderly Asian man who was walking his dog, and the third was also a person of color.
'I can't prove whether it was racially motivated or not, but she was screaming all sorts of awful things at me. The facts are what they are.'
Yi was hospitalized and received several stitches to her face but suffered no fractures, an X-ray determined
Yi has dealt with the homeless problem in her area but had never been attacked like this before
Police confirm the other attacks but suggest that it may be a mental health issue.
'It appeared that she was mentally unstable and maybe off her medication,' said Flores. 'That probably caused her to do what she did.'
Police have not named the woman, but have kept her in custody and charged her with three counts of assault with a deadly weapon. She has not been charged with a hate crime.
Yi, who finished in 10th place on her season of Survivor, is still reeling from the attack.
'It was really awful,' she says. 'It was dark when this happened. I hope that police will have more protections during the hours that we need them most.'
While much of Venice has seen a homeless population boon, it appears the problem has leaked into Santa Monica, a mere three miles away
The area claims that tourism and visitors have declined in recent years due to the increasing homeless problem
She says that she doesn't have family living near her, as her parents are in Taiwan while her siblings live in the Bay Area.
'Physically, I'm on the mend,' she says. 'Emotionally, it's harder, but I should be ok.'
This comes as the state of California and southern California in particular continues to suffer from a devastating homeless problem.
Back in May, exclusive DailyMail.com photos showed tent-dwellers who have abandoned downtown LA's Skid Row and the freeway ramps in Long Beach, turning a short stretch of prime property just south of the Santa Monica border into the nation's newest flashpoint between business interests and those forced from their homes.
And while tourists and locals still visit the iconic boardwalk - a place they have long shared with the weird and the wacky - visitors' numbers have decreased as they must contend with an ever-growing army of homeless and the crime that accompanies them.
Residents in the area are considering moving — but property prices have dropped by anything between 10 and 30 percent.
2015 vs. 2021: The homeless have abandoned downtown LA's Skid Row for Venice Beach where a city of tents are set up on the sand and along the boardwalk
2015 vs. 2021: The area of Venice Beach is now riddled with crime, making the area less appealing for locals and tourists - and looks much different than it once did in 2015
'I can't even walk my dog or go bike riding along the Venice Beach bike path anymore, one longtime Venice resident said. 'It's too scary and just too violent'
DailyMail.com found syringes — one with a needle still attached — nestling in the sand in a children's play area
The homeless population has mushroomed in Venice. A count in 2014 showed only 175 people living rough. Five years later that figure stood at more than 1,200. But it is over the last few months that things have spiraled out of control
A parent told DailyMail.com, 'No one wants to have a birthday party at the beach or in a park and be confronted with needles and human feces. And that's saying nothing about the possibility of criminal acts or a mentally unstable individual'
'We see fights almost daily. There is drug use out in the open, there is semi nudity as they urinate and defecate under a tree. We've had our bikes stolen, there's fires, there's needles everywhere, and the kids at the school are exposed to it all,' one resident said
Cops sweep through on a regular basis, more to show they are a presence than to actually make arrests, say business owners on Ocean Front Walk, the official name of the boardwalk
The near-mile-long stretch of boardwalk where the encampment has sprouted is far from the only tent city in Venice. Quiet residential streets are lined with grimy camper vans
Many people in the area are considering moving as the authorities seem unable to do anything about the homeless— but property prices have dropped by anything between 10 and 30 percent, so a move may not be economically viable
'We have people shooting up in front of the school, playing loud music all day, yelling at each other, hitting thing, fighting. These people are not in need of beds. They need help and leaving them to do whatever they want on the sidewalk across the street from our neighborhood school is outrageous,' said one mother
DailyMail.com found syringes — one with a needle still attached — nestling in the sand in a children's play area on the beach, emblematic of how the people for whom the area was designed are now being pushed out.
'I can understand why people don't want us here,' Ian told DailyMail.com. 'But don't blame us for everything. I didn't turn your son into a drug addict. I didn't turn your daughter into a prostitute. I didn't steal your bicycle.'
The homeless population has mushroomed in Venice. A count in 2014 showed only 175 people living rough. Five years later that figure stood at more than 1,200. But it is over the last few months that things have spiraled out of control.
Fires are a major problem. Blazes linked to homelessness have shot up threefold in the three years since Los Angeles Fire Department officials have been logging them. Seven people died last year in the city and property damage shot into the millions of dollars.
A wildfire raging in Topanga Canyon, north of downtown LA started near a homeless encampment and officials say it was started deliberately. Two people have been arrested in connection with the fire which has so far destroyed more than 1,300 acres.
One blaze destroyed a cute little one-story home a couple of blocks from Venice Beach, just across the street from both a pre-school and an elementary school, killing Togo, owner Courtney Gillenwater's eight-month-old husky mix, as DailyMail.com revealed exclusively. An official determination has yet to be made,
