Black woman throws acid in face of white woman

The assailant was a stranger and the attack was unprovoked. MSNBC does not mention the race of the assailant until the last sentence of the article.

Acid attacker: ‘Hey pretty girl, do you want to drink this?’
Wash. woman in serious condition after unprovoked attack in Vancouver

VANCOUVER, Wash.—A 28-year-old woman severely burned when a stranger threw an acid-like liquid in her face was listed in serious condition in a Oregon hospital.

Bethany Storro, of Vancouver, Wash., was getting something out of her car in downtown Vancouver when the attack happened Monday evening, her mother Nancy Neuwelt told The Oregonian.

Neuwelt said a young woman walked up to her daughter, said: “Hey pretty girl, do you want to drink this?” and tossed a cup of liquid in Storro’s face.

“I’m a nice girl and I don’t know why this happened,” Storro, 28, said Tuesday in her hospital room in the Oregon Burn Center at Legacy Emanuel Medical Center in Portland, The Columbian newspaper reported.

Storro said the pain was the most excruciating she had ever experienced, her mother told The Columbian.

“It was burning through her shirt. She took off her shirt and she was trying to wipe her face,” Neuwelt said, according to the newspaper.

‘Felt like her heart stopped’

Storro “kind of remembers walking in circles,” Neuwelt added. “She felt like her heart stopped at one point.”

She collapsed, screaming for help, only to realize she was not being heard. She got back up and stumbled toward a group of people, The Oregonian reported.

“Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers,” Storro said in a written statement Tuesday, The Oregonian reported. “I appreciate all of the well wishes being sent my way. I do ask, if anyone should know the woman who assaulted me, please contact the Vancouver Police.”

Neuwelt said her daughter was wearing a pair of sunglasses she had bought shortly before the attack and that may have saved her eyesight. Still, Storro’s family said her face will take months to heal.

“It’s very bizarre, very random and very weird, and we don’t understand it,” Neuwelt told The Columbian, speaking by phone from her daughter’s bedside.

“She’s having a hard time,” she added. “It’s changed her life now and her emotions are all over the place.”

Recently moved to city

Neuwelt told The Columbian that her daughter had recently moved to Vancouver and was single with no children.

“She wanted to make a fresh start and this happened,” Neuwelt, a worship leader and administrative assistant at a local church, told the paper. “Bethany is a really great, fun, energetic and adorable girl, and she didn’t deserve this.”

“I am so disgusted with society right now!” Storro’s brother, Abraham Neuwelt of Seattle, said on his Facebook page, The Columbian reported.

“Yesterday my little sister got some form of acid thrown into her face while walking through downtown Vancouver, WA. She is currently in the hospital with severe burns and could face permanent damage. This incident was totally unprovoked and malicious in nature. If you believe in prayer, now is the time to ask for a full recovery and that the assailant be brought to justice!”

Vancouver police spokeswoman Kim Kapp said doctors and authorities were trying to determine what kind of substance caused Storro’s facial burns.

Police said the assailant was described as a black woman between 25 and 35, who wore a green shirt and khaki shorts, The Columbian reported. She had medium-length black hair that was pulled back.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

- end of initial entry -

David B. writes:

If you can stand to look at them, here are photos of the victim of the “random act of violence.”

LA replies:

I’m shocked that the media is showing photos of her injuries, and personally I’m not looking.

Sophia A. writes:

Pictures of Bethany. Absolutely horrifying.

Bruce B. writes:

Amren has the picture of the victim. It’s not clear to me that she’s white. Not that it really matters, it’s still just as horrible.

Ferg writes:

“when a stranger threw an acid-like liquid in her face”

Acid like? What else would burn like this? What kind of commentary is this? And don’t people who have this happen not know that the first thing you do is find water and flush the area continuously? You do not wipe at it with a cloth, still less with one that has itself been wetted with acid. And the water should be cold. The colder the better.

As for the cause of the attack, can there be any doubt? “Hey pretty girl”? Kind of says it all I think.

I have not suffered acid burns and they are among the worst. But I have suffered thermal burns and I can tell you it takes not weeks nor months to heal, but years. God bless this poor young woman and may the woman who threw it spend many years in prison for her wanton, and “very bizarre, very random and very weird”, attack. “Very random”? I think not. “Very bizarre”? I wouldn’t call it that. “Very weird”? Not if you are trying to ruin someone’s life, and bring them down to your level it’s not. When are the whites of this nation going to grow up and realize they are under siege? When are they going to learn to live in a state of mental preparedness? Expect danger and violence? This kind of thing is going to continue and get worse, much worse, until it is a daily occurrence.

September 2

Sophia A. writes:

I’ve seen those “acid-like” accounts. Most accounts are honestly calling it “acid.”

HuffPo links to an item that calls it a “substance.”

BTW how do we know the attacker called Bethany “pretty girl”? Maybe she said, “white girl.” Or “white bitch.”

This account is pretty good:

Read the comment. Not such a “pacific” area apparently.

Richard W. writes:

Vancouver has never had a black ghetto.

But, because the housing market is in free fall here, and the county has 13.3% unemployment, the city government, which has long been dominated by real estate developers, has decided aggressively to recruit section 8 recipients from Portland’s underclass. At the same time, for slightly different reasons (including the ease of getting drivers licenses in Washington State without proof of citizenship), the Latino population has exploded.

In the ten years I’ve lived here, Vancouver has gone from a nice, slightly cheaper, working class alternative to Portland to a city dealing with crime, gangs, shoplifting, graffiti, and now random acid attacks, thanks to ”diversity.” Our local newspaper has done a lot to help the process with endless articles and op-eds about how great the diversity is.

Jim C. writes:

A “random” acid attack?

See story on the victim, Bethany Storro’s, news conference.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at September 01, 2010 05:19 PM | Send