A woman is recovering after a brutal attack earlier this month in Dallas, and police are searching for whoever is responsible.
The scars on Sarikhi Chaffin's face are healing, but the memory of what happened to her right outside her apartment complex haunts her.
Chaffin said she was walking home July 5 to her apartment on Maple Avenue in the medical district when a car crept up behind her and a man jumped out and grabbed her.
"He came up behind me, put his arms around me. He said, 'I'm going to grab your purse. I need your purse.' I said, 'No!' and hit him with my keys," Chaffin said.
That's when the 34-year-old said the man hit her hard across the head with something metal.
"I have no idea what he hit me with. It was very hard enough to split my ear completely in half, and so hard I passed out before I hit the floor," she said.
Chaffin said when she woke up on the concrete her purse was missing and her face and shirt were covered in blood.
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She stumbled to her sister's apartment, who immediately called 911.
Chaffin ended up in the hospital for nearly a day, receiving stitches to a large gash over her eye while surgeons repaired ear.
"I'm petrified to live here," she said. "As soon as the sun goes down I don't leave. If for some reason I need to go somewhere I'm not driving."
Chaffin said the area around her apartment is very popular for younger people and medical students. She wants them all to be aware of their surroundings.
"I was paying full attention to where I was there, but as soon as I got here where I thought was home, where I thought I should be comfortable, I let my guard down," she warned others. "It needs to be stopped, these people need to stop. I don't want them ruining and damaging anyone else's life."
Chaffin said a neighbor who witnessed what happened told her it was a silver SUV that fled the scene.
Dallas police are investigating.
