A 51-year-old woman was working at her fruit stand in Westlake on Monday when two women knocked it over, allegedly after a dispute regarding a parking a spot.
The altercation took place Monday afternoon on Rampart Boulevard and 6th Street, where Sandra Quinonez has been a street vendor for more than 30 years, she told KTLA.
The two women were caught on video knocking down the fruit stand, though what took place before was not captured on film.
Quinonez said she kindly asked the women to back up their vehicle so she could park next to the fruit stand. They allegedly refused and took up two parking spots.
“My mom just asked them for a little bit of space so she could park correctly, and they said no, that they wouldn’t move unless she paid them to move,” her daughter, Amalia Diaz, told KTLA. “And my mom said ‘No, I’m not going to pay you.'”
Before a table of bananas are seen getting tossed to the ground, Quinonez says the women yelled racial slurs and one even pulled out a gun. That’s when she called police.
“I don’t know their motivation for it,” Diaz said. “I don’t want to say it’s a racial motive [because] that’s messed up. We’re in 2021. Why should racism even be a thing anymore? But if it was, then those girls are who they are.”
Quinonez said she feels terrorized and is reluctant to return to work.
“How am I supposed to get ahead?” Quinonez asked in Spanish, adding that she works seven days a week to make rent.
Her daughter started a GoFundMe page to make up for what was damaged during the altercation.
“That’s her work source,” Diaz said. “She lost what she invested. Plus, she lost these days of work.”
The Los Angeles Police Department said they’ve talked to the women in the video and are investigating the incident as an assault with a deadly weapon.
