‘I didn’t think she bit a chunk off’: Seattle woman whose forehead was bitten by random attacker speaks out

Diana Gonzalez was on a break from work in downtown Seattle when a stranger hurled racial insults, spat on her, and bit a chunk out of her forehead.

Gonzalez told “The Jake and Spike Show” on KIRO Newsradio she knew immediately that she was being bitten, but not how severe the injury was.

“When she was doing it, I instantly knew that she was doing it,” Gonzalez said. “I just didn’t think she went through or bit a chunk off.”

The defendant, 36-year-old Kamilia Chadli, is charged with second-degree assault in the Sept. 18 attack. A judge granted her attorney’s request for a competency evaluation during Monday’s hearing. The case is scheduled to return to court Oct. 13.

A work break turns violent

Gonzalez told KIRO hosts Jake Skorheim and Spike O’Neill she was walking toward a 7-Eleven to get a drink when a woman outside the Arctic Hotel began throwing trash at her.

Initially, Gonzalez looked over to determine whether the woman was targeting her or simply littering. When she asked what her problem was, the woman repeatedly called her an “inferior race.”

Gonzalez questioned the suggestion that mental illness could explain the racist language she described.

“Yes, because it’s just like even if you have a mental illness, that doesn’t make you racist,” Gonzalez said. “Like that doesn’t make you hurl racist things at people.”

She recalled preparing to leave when the woman stood up and spat on her. Gonzalez acknowledged moving closer afterward to confront her.

“You don’t understand how it feels to get spit on,” Gonzalez said. “It’s so disrespectful and violating.”

The woman then grabbed her shirt and pulled her down, Gonzalez recounted. She described bruising her knees as she fell before the woman grabbed her face and bit her.

“Even when she pulled me, I’m thinking, ‘Oh, this is a fight,’ very unfortunate thing to happen. But I’m thinking, ‘OK, a fight.’ Like she’s gonna try to fight me, not instantly bite me,” Gonzalez said.

After the bite, Gonzalez described grabbing the woman’s hair and banging her head against the ground because she feared being bitten again. A hotel employee eventually intervened.

Once she stood up, the blood and the employee’s reaction prompted Gonzalez to ask whether a piece of her forehead was missing.

Facing surgery and a permanent scar

Gonzalez described the wound as roughly the size of a quarter, though it had shrunk somewhat. Doctors had discussed a skin-flap procedure using another part of her forehead rather than a skin graft, she explained.

“I’m just hoping for minimal scarring,” Gonzalez said.

She expressed hope that additional treatment could eventually make the permanent scar less noticeable, though the attack’s emotional effects have already followed her into everyday situations.

Gonzalez recalled feeling panicky while stopped at a traffic light when someone resembling her attacker crossed the street. Later, a person walking between cars at a drive-through triggered a similar fear.

Before the attack, Gonzalez hadn’t viewed the woman as threatening. She described someone who was dressed well, eating a meal, and looked like a peer.

“The thing is, this person looked very much like me, like my peer, like someone I could have went to high school with,” Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez hopes charge remains a felony

Gonzalez questioned why the defendant had been free before the attack and argued that leaving the scene and later disputing what happened showed the woman understood what she had done. As the case moves forward, Gonzalez hopes it will not end with a plea to a lesser charge.

“I hope it doesn’t get lowered to anything other than a felony because I don’t want her to plead guilty to and get a lesser charge,” Gonzalez said.

She started a GoFundMe to help with recovery expenses that might not be covered by other assistance. Gonzalez hopes the court process will bring a favorable outcome.

“I’m just hoping everything works out in my favor for this,” she said.

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to “The Jake and Spike Show” weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio 97.3