Was mom punched outside dance studio in broad daylight latest victim of sinister ‘knockout game’?”

Alexandra Klausner
January 9, 2014

One mother from Los Gatos, California was brutally punched outside of a dance studio in what may have been the sinister ‘knockout game’ occurring around the United States.

Witnesses heard screams outside the studio on the 1400 block of Blossom Hill Road in the middle of the Afternoon, said Monte Sereno Police.

Witnesses say the woman fell to the ground and grabbed her red face. She had just dropped her daughter off for class.
Since the woman is a victim of a violent crime, her identity has been kept a secret.

Police say that the suspect is a black man in his early to mid twenties who stands at around 5’9′ to 6′ tall with short brown hair and a slender frame. CBS reports that he was wearing jeans, a white t-shirt, and a backwards white baseball cap.
‘We heard a commotion like a thunk and a scream,’ dance instructor Mariana Sorbal told KPIX 5.

The attack was unsolicited and characteristic of other ‘knockout game’ attacks around the US in which the attacker tries to knockout complete strangers with one punch.

‘It was in the middle of the day. It wasn’t even dark yet, it was full of people. So obviously they’re trying to look for attention,’ Sorbal said. ‘It’s kind of scary, that someone thinks it’s a game to go ahead and punch people.’

‘She’s really shocked; it was a really traumatic experience and I think that’s the most emotional part that’s the hardest,’ballet teacher Mariana Sobal said to ABC news.’
‘Physically she’s fine. That’s basically it.’

ABC reports that residents are taking measures to protect themselves from a suspect who could attack at any time without warning.

‘I think pepper spray is maybe a good idea, but if you’re being sucker-punched, you’re not going to see it coming so I don’t think there’d be enough time to react,’ resident Gina Oliva said. ‘Me, I think it’s just safer to walk in pairs if we can.’ One woman told ABC she was planning on carrying a taser.

The woman is in stable condition and was treated for her injuries on the scene, but she’s one of the luckier victims of the knockout game.

CBS reports that in Pennsylvania, on teacher was hit so hard he collapsed head first on a concrete curb.

A man from New York City was punched and knocked out cold.

Jeffrey Butts of John Jay College told CBS that he thinks the game is popular amongst teenagers trying to prove their manhood but who in the end just prove that they are ‘still children.’

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