Liquor store security cameras captured the terrifying moment Netflix executive Wendy Drew fought for her life after being attacked in the Financial District by a man walking his dog who had earlier yelled a racial slur at her.
“This guy looks pretty normal, with this dog, walks by and he calls me the N-word, right? And I’m like, excuse me, why are you calling me that? So he comes back and says what? Then he starts hitting me and just knocks me over,” Drew said.
The fight escalated as Drew tried to block the man’s jabs. Quick thinking led her to Drumm Liquor and Deli, where she knew security cameras would capture the incident.
Footage shows her holding her attacker down while she yells at customers to call the police. A man came forward to pepper spray her attacker before he left the store. Unfortunately for Drew, the man did not react to the spray at all.
“I started screaming, call 911, call 911 and I was holding that guy, and I was like, I’m not letting you go. You’re going to jail,” she said.
Drew held off her attacker for nearly 5 minutes. She tried to block his exit until the police arrived, but he managed to push her aside before they arrived. She chased her attacker down the dark street to a restaurant where shocked bystanders watched her desperately try to hold her attacker back.
A group of restaurant staff and customers rushed to her aid, quickly pinning the man to the ground until police arrived. Drew said her sister, Pam, who was in the restaurant at the time, estimated that police arrived within six minutes.
“I stood up and I was like, no, go after him. Wendy, just keep going after him,” she said.
Police identified the man as 31-year-old Irvin Rivera-Lara. He was arrested on charges of assault with intent to cause serious bodily injury, committing a hate crime and providing false information to a police officer.
This isn’t Rivera-Lara’s first crime. He was arrested for assault after attacking another chef outside a restaurant last year. Drew and her twin sister, Pam, believe the attacks were premeditated and motivated by hate.
“When he sees Wendy, he clearly sees a black woman, and what is the trigger word for black people, the n-word. So he clearly does things to trigger people’s emotions,” Pam said
Omar Idlabi, owner of Drumm Liquor and Deli, said incidents like this are not uncommon for his store. While his store is targeted with robberies and threats on a daily basis, he had never seen anything like what happened to Drew.
“I feel sorry for her. Really, really sorry,” Idalbi said. “Like she’s a lady and the man, he should be in jail, he said.
Now that the incident is behind us, Drew and her sister are scared, but mostly angry.
“You know, we know we have a profile of who’s going to attack you, who’s going to harm you, but this man didn’t fit that profile,” she said.
As she recovers, Drew wants the city, and especially the women, to pay attention to her story and stay vigilant.
