The athlete revealed that she was attacked in downtown Los Angles over the weekend.
After Olympian Kim Glass was attacked in Los Angeles on Friday, the man detained and accused of the attack has been charged with one felony count of assault with a deadly weapon.
Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón issued a press release on Tuesday regarding the attack, and detailed the arrest of 51-year-old Semeon Tesfamariam.
"On July 8, Tesfamarian allegedly approached the victim and threw a 10-inch metal bolt at her face resulting in serious injuries," the statement shared. "Good Samaritans at the scene detained the defendant while police arrived."
The release also explained that Tesfamarian "previously convicted in 2020 of a serious and/or violent felony." Prior to that, Tesfamarian's first felony assault occurred in 2018 and the second in 2019, and he was on parole at the time he allegedly assaulted Glass.
"This was a brutal, unprovoked attack. Mr. Tesfamariam has a troubling history of attacking apparently random people with dangerous weapons. His behavior appears to have escalated with time," Gascón said, per the release. "We have asked the court to preventatively detain him to protect the public. The court granted that request and he is currently being held without bail."
A hearing has been set for Aug. 17 to determine Tesfamariam's competency to stand trial.
Glass first shared that she was attacked in a series of videos posted on her Instagram Stories on Friday. The 37-year-old athlete revealed that she was hit in the face by a metal object, after a homeless man threw it at her when she was leaving a lunch with a friend.
In the clips, the fitness guru talks to the camera as she shows off one eye that is swollen and bruised and a gash located on the bridge of her nose. Glass begins to explain that she was in downtown Los Angles having lunch with a friend, when she noticed the man with something in his hand.
“This homeless man ran up, and he had something in his hand, he was on the other side of the car in the street, and he just looked at me, with some pretty hateful eyes," she says. "And as I turned to go tell my friend ‘I think something is wrong with him’ and ‘I think he’s gonna hit the car,’ before I knew it, a big metal bolt, like pipe, hit me right here,” she tells the camera as she motions toward her injuries.
“It just happened so fast,” she continues. “He literally flung it from the street so he was not even close to me at all. Kinda took me down and out.”
Glass shared that bystanders caught the man and held him down until the police arrived on the scene and the ambulance came. As far as her eyesight, the athlete said that her vision should be fine.
“Right now, it looks like my vision will be OK, and I got some really great stitching from a doctor,” she tells the camera. Glass went on to explain that in addition, she does have multiple fractures.
The Olympian became emotional as she thanked her family and friends for their support. Glass also gave a warning to her followers about being safe and vigilant when walking around, and being mindful of the mental health crisis.
Glass was a silver medalist at the 2008 Beijing Olympics on the U.S. Women's Indoor Volleyball team.
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