Teenager says Trump supporter assaulted her in South Pasadena

Police are investigating a teenager’s report that a Trump supporter assaulted her this week during a youth-led counterprotest.

The South Pasadena Police Department said in a statement that there was a “physical altercation between two opposing political groups” at Fair Oaks Avenue and Mission Street about 6 p.m. Sunday.

The Police Department didn’t provide details about what happened and said no one was arrested. Both the teenager and the alleged attacker pressed claims against each other for battery, which will be presented to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office for review, South Pasadena police Sgt. Spencer Louie said.

It’s unclear how many people are involved in each case.

Penny Aboud, 16, said she was near two booths that were selling Trump merchandise on Sunday evening when a woman yanked her hair and pulled her to the ground.

“She pulled my hair and jerked my head back and kind of drags me over to the side of the tents,” Penny said. “It was really scary.”

Then, she said, the Trump supporters in the area surrounded her.

“People had to pull them off of me,” she said. They “lunged for me.”

Witnesses said they were shocked that the South Pasadena Police Department made no arrests after they saw the woman assault the girl.

Ixchel Carrizales, a 19-year-old protester, said the two groups were shouting and arguing throughout the day. The Trump supporters were making comments about the children’s race, telling a little girl that she was not Black and calling a group the “baby KKK,” said Ava Dunville, a 17-year-old protester and Aboud’s friend.

Carrizales said someone called her an immigrant and told her “go back to my country.” She says she was born in the U.S.

At one point, Carrizales saw Penny appear to get frustrated and knock over some MAGA caps from one of the Trump merchandise booths.

The woman behind the booth lunged toward Aboud, Carrizales said. She and a group of other protesters intervened to separate the woman from the girl.

The group “had to grab at the woman’s hand to get her off the girl and there was a struggle. You could tell [Penny] was under a lot of distress,” Carrizales said. “She was crying, she was scared.”

Carrizales said the counterprotesters did not attack the woman or man behind the booths.

Ava said she was upset about the way the South Pasadena Police Department handled the situation and would have expected an arrest.

Her mother, Nichole Dunville, said that when the people selling the Trump merchandise were packing up to leave, the police appeared to protect them.

“They got to pull the car up to the curb and fill their car with the police jovially helping them, almost,” Nichole Dunville said. “They had a little police escort out of there.”

Said Ava: “The fact they drove off was really surprising to everyone that was still standing there.”

Louie, the police official, said no arrests were made because “that’s how we’ve chosen to handle this.”

He declined to comment further on the case, citing the ongoing investigation.