On Friday, June 22, 11-year-old Michele Capra graduated from fifth grade at Webster Elementary School. To celebrate, she went to Pizza Hut with her family and baby-sitter, followed by an outing at Topanga State Beach with her baby-sitter.
At 2:30 p.m., Michele was building a sand castle when she was suddenly attacked by a middle-aged woman, “looking like she’d had a rough life, and was wasted by drugs or alcohol–completely out of it,” said Michele’s father, Bernt Capra, when he arrived a short time later.
As Michele described the incident, the woman was jogging by when she suddenly “started turning to run in front of me, into our sand castle. I thought she was going to stomp on our sand castle … so I covered my face so no sand would get in my eyes.” But instead, the woman scowled at Michele, making “the scariest, most threatening face ever.” At least two people witnessed the woman kick Michele. “She kicked my face; luckily, my hands were in the way,” she said.
Michele ran for help while the woman made “gurgling noises,” threw sand over Michele’s baby-sitter, dived into knee-deep water and began rolling around in the surf.
In a coordinated effort, lifeguards Captain Mike Patterson and Ralph Lee detained the woman in her vehicle with her boyfriend until sheriff’s deputies arrived. According to Bernt Capra, deputies said a warrant was out for the boyfriend’s arrest.
Before deputies arrested both suspects, Michele was asked to identify the woman. “The crazy woman in the car shook her head and was signing with her lips, ‘No,’ but I said ‘Yes’ because it was her,” Michele said.