A woman is speaking out after she was assaulted on Haulover Beach in the middle of the day, and police are still looking for her attacker.
Renee Ricca exclusively spoke to NBC 6 Friday about the attack. At around 3:30 p.m. Sunday, she decided to go on a walk from her home along Haulover Beach to Bal Harbor. She was walking back home near the Miami-Dade Fire Station when she looked up and saw a man come at her.
“A man walked up to me by putting his suitcase down. He was proceeding to come to me," Ricca said. And then I don't remember, he knocked the heck out of me, just like that."
“I just looked at him and he came and hit me in my eye and I was knocked out,” she said. “He picked me up and he threw me deep into the mangroves. I had the phone in my hand, screaming. My hand (was) up and my leg up and he beat my head. I had six hematomas."
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Ricca went to the hospital for treatment. Her bumps and bruises are healing. But the fit Pilates instructor is worried about others. She said was only able to get away because someone else was walking up on the path, which she believes scared the attacker.
Ricca believes her attacker was experiencing homelessness. She hopes her attack is a wake-up call for the community to take action to address homelessness and provide more services to help solve the problem.
“Nobody expects that to happen at any location, especially this location,” Ricca said.
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Miami-Dade Police are investigating, but no arrests have been made.
Ricca described the man as roughly six feet tall, with a thin build, brown hair, brown eyes, and a light complexion. She said he was wearing hot pink swim shorts and sandals and was holding a gray suitcase.
If you have any information you are asked to contact Miami-Dade Police Department.
