Chris White on November 12, 2019
Californians are struggling to deal with the state’s homeless problems, but one Los Angeles woman’s story of a transient man’s decision to douse her in excrement puts the issue into a disturbing light.
Heidi Van Tassel recounted to NBC4 reporters how a random homeless man pulled her out of her car and into the street before dumping a bucket of feces on her head. Public records appear to back up her story, according to NBC4’s report Monday.
“It was diarrhea. Hot liquid. I was soaked, and it was coming off my eyelashes and into my eyes,” Van Tassel told reporters. “Paramedics who came to treat me said there was so much of it on me, that it looked like the man was saving it up for a month.”
She added: “It was all inside my car because it was so much. He just kept pouring it and splattering it all over me.” Van Tassel was tested for infectious diseases after the attack and she’ll be retested every three months, NBC4 noted.
Van Tassel’s attacker was Jere Blessings, a transient with “schizophrenia and psychotic disorders,” records showed. A judge sent Blessings to a residential facility for people with mental health problems. He was released in August and is back in the community, NBC4 noted.
Van Tassel said she is worried.
“I will never, ever, forget his face,” she said. “What’s the next thing he’s going to do somebody? If he would’ve had a knife, for sure he would’ve stabbed me.”
California’s homeless problem has gotten the attention of President Donald Trump, who reportedly sent aides from the Department of Housing and Urban Development to the state in September to investigate homeless camps.
The president wants the transient population to be transferred into permanent housing.
