RICHMOND, Va. -- Two women brutally assaulted at two Carytown bars over the past month are coming together to seek justice and keep other patrons safe.
Colleen Kafka says she was assaulted on September 19, while Alexa Ramos filed a police report last Thursday, after falling victim to a similar unprovoked attack.
“It just doesn’t feel real, like I’m still really processing everything,” Ramos said. “Everyone was just screaming, and it was just so chaotic in the moment.”
Ramos was leaving the bar Home Sweet Home with her girlfriend and friends early Thursday morning when she says a man, who had been asked by management to leave the bar just minutes earlier, began assaulting Ramos soon after she walked out the door.
“I think the first initial punch was right to my eye and my eyebrow,” Ramos said. “I got four stitches and my eye just actually opened up today, so the swelling went down enough for me to actually see. I have bruises and contusions all over my forehead. Luckily, nothing was broken but I have a lot of swelling and bruising on my face.”
While there are several eyewitness reports and surveillance video of the incident, Ramos said she’s still waiting for answers that she fears may never come.
“It’s always felt like a safe space to me,” Ramos said.
When Colleen Kafka heard of Ramos’ attack on the news, she was immediately struck by the similarities to an assault she’d experienced just one month earlier on September 19 at another Carytown bar, this time at New York Deli.
“A big guy came and shoved me, threw me against the wall, and started choking me and just saying like ‘I’m gonna kill you.’”
Kafka and Ramos met for the first time Monday to compare stories.
“I mean he had me and I kind of wiggled out of that,” Kafka explained to Ramos. “He started throwing punches and eventually threw me on the ground and that’s when I blacked out.”
Kafka says while the assault inside the New York Deli on the dance floor was not caught on camera, she was able to identify her assailant and his friends using surveillance video now in the possession of the Richmond Police Department.
“I think a lot of my friends present, as part of the queer community, as masculine and my assumption was that the gentleman thought I was a guy,” Kafka says. “I’m not saying I would ever condone violence on someone but to have a gentleman that size come and beat on me the way he did and what other people are doing to people like there’s something behind that.”
Kafka says she’s frustrated by the lack of progress in her case and concerned that assaults inside bars and restaurants aren’t taken more seriously by business establishments and authorities.
“It’s been a month since my attack and we’re still waiting to get a lineup at this point,” Kafka says.
Ramos says she also fears her case won’t be resolved but is holding out hope that investigators can track down her assailant to prevent him from attacking innocent people in the future.
“I’ve always been a tough person and it’s been really hard to realize, ok this thing happened to you and your life is going to be different now,” Ramos says. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be the same.”
Each woman says the assaults were unprovoked and violent. They are hoping to spread awareness that will shed light on safety issues inside Virginia’s bar establishments, especially for the LGBTQ community.
“I just felt lucky honestly, Ramos says. “I mean who knows what the outcome would have been if nobody was around.”
This is a developing story. Email the CBS 6 Newsroom if you have information to share.
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