A security camera captured an assault that stemmed from a dispute over whose turn it was to fill up at a gas station in San Pedro.
Anydenisse Cerezo, 24, suffered bruises to her arm and was slapped in the face by a man who accused her of cutting in front of him at the AM/PM Arco station on Gaffey Street. The U.S. Army veteran spoke with NBCLA Thursday about the altercation.
Cerezo and a man in a Toyota Tacoma entered the station at the same time from different entrances, she said. A van was about to leave, opening space at two pumps, so Cerezo moved behind the van, preparing to pull forward and leave one of the pump spaces open for someone else, she said.
That’s when the Tacoma driver honked. Security camera video shows the man acting aggressively toward Cerezo as she sits her in her car.
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“I said, ‘You know what, the pump ahead me is clear, so I’ll just move forward,’ said Cerezo. "While he was too busy being aggressive with me, we lost the spot. He got even more mad.”
About a minute after the first exchange of words, the confrontation turned violent, she said.
“He proceeded to open my door and grab me out of my car,” Cerezo said. “I eventually slapped him in the face and he did the same. He hit me.”
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Other people can be seen coming to Cerezo’s aid. The man eventually took off, but not before she wrote down his license late number and filed an assault report with police, Cerezo said. Updates on the investigation were not available Thursday night from the LAPD.
“I let him know, ‘Hey, if it was somebody else, it could have been a completely different situation,’ because there are veterans who have PTSD,” Cerezo said. “You don’t approach someone, get in their face, open their door.”
No arrests were reported Friday.
