'Survivor' contestant Michelle Yi recovering after being attacked at a Pilates studio: 'She stabbed me in the left bicep'
Former Survivor contestant Michelle Yi, who competed in the 2007 season set in Fiji, is recovering from a scary incident.
The former reality star told People that it happened just before 6 a.m. Oct. 14 as she arrived at a Pilates studio in Santa Monica, Calif., where she was supposed to teach a class. As her students entered the open front door, she noticed a woman who looked, as the magazine described it, "disheveled and agitated" approaching. Yi said she was yelling at her, saying that she was a prostitute and had stolen her identity.
"Santa Monica has a homeless problem, and I've dealt with this type of thing before," said Yi, who was voted out ninth on her Survivor season. "So I told her, 'Ma'am, you can't be here. You need to leave.'"
That's when she remembers the woman getting violent.
"She stabbed me in the left bicep," Yi said. "And then she hit me on the right hand with the baton. My Apple Watch shattered." The attacker allegedly also hit her on the head.
After that, "My face split open, blood was everywhere," Yi explained.
A Santa Monica Police Department spokesman, Lt. Rudy Flores, tells Yahoo Entertainment that police responded to a disturbance of the peace call at Second Street and Arizona Avenue that morning after receiving reports of a woman "carrying a baton and hitting cars." They then saw the suspect hitting a male victim and immediately took her into custody. They discovered that there were two other victims, including Yi, who was both "poked" by a saw blade and struck by the pipe. While Yi drove herself to a hospital for treatment, which included stitches on her face, the other two victims' injuries were limited to scratches, and they refused medical treatment.
The alleged attacker, identified as Alexandria Diaz of Fresno, turned out to be on the list of missing persons. She suffers from mental illness and was possibly off her medication, according to police.
On Monday, the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office filed three counts of assault with a deadly weapon against her.
Although Diaz was not charged with a hate crime, Yi, who is Asian, said she's unsure why she was selected as a victim.
"Physically, I'm on the mend," Yi said. "Emotionally, it's harder, but I should be OK."
