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Video: Watch Women At LA Nail Salon Fight Off A Violent Attacker With Wooden Chairs

These women had to fight for their lives, and they won.

By Sowmya Krishnamurthy

Three women at a Los Angeles nail salon were randomly attacked by a man and the incident was caught on video. According to Fox News, the 25-year-old attacker came into the store on Wednesday and started hitting three victims for no conceivable reason. 

Surveillance video from the incident shows how the women at Bio Laque Nails in Sherman Oaks used purses and wooden chairs to fend off the attacker. The attacker was later identifed as Gustavo Aranda of Chatsworth, California.
The victims were identified as a salon employee and two sisters, Melda and Virginia Martinez Bojorquez, who were celebrating a birthday with manicures and pedicures. "There was no time to be scared," said LAPD Capt. Lillian Carranza, translating from Spanish for the sisters.

The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) shared in an online statement about how the random act of violence  unfolded, beginning with a carjacking at 8:25 a.m. "The suspect approached the victim from behind and shouted obscenities at the victim. In fear, the victim ran away," authorities said. "The suspect chased the victim and hit him repeatedly causing him to fall to the ground." He stole the keys to a man’s 2007 gray Toyota 4 Runner and fled the scene in the car. That's when the suspect entered the nail salon, likely thinking that it was empty, and got into the skirmish. "The victims were involved in an intense fight for their life with the dangerous suspect. The suspect punched the victims several times. He also swung a chair and hit the victim until employees from a neighboring business arrived and apprehended the suspect." 

"They were battling each other with chairs," Rene Javier Solis, a nearby store employee said. "I saw how badly wounded he was. ... I just looked over to them and I was like, 'Wow, I'm impressed.'"

Authorities lauded the victims and the police as well other people in the area for coming together to help fight off the suspect. "Great teamwork between the community and LAPD Van Nuys Division officers in arresting a violent carjacking suspect that also assaulted multiple victims at a local nail salon," LAPD posted on Facebook.

Authorities from the Los Angeles Police Department's Van Nuys Area are currently seeking the public's help in identifying additional victims and to locate the stolen vehicle taken by the suspect.

[Photo: Los Angeles Police Department]

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