Single mom on way to work fights back amid brutal attack, refuses to give up purse: 'I didn't want him to get away with this'

A single mother was brutally attacked as she was headed to work early one morning last weekend in Long Beach, California — but Beth Quintana fought back with everything she had, refusing to hand over her purse to the thug beating her.

"I didn't want him to get away with this," Quintana told KTLA-TV.

What are the details?

Quintana was walking to her car around 4:30 a.m. Saturday near 25th Street and Cedar Avenue and told police that an unknown man on a bicycle — and armed with a knife — approached her from behind, demanded her personal property, and then assaulted her, the station said.

“I had this really bad feeling, like something bad was going to happen, but I ignored my intuition and kept walking,” Quintana noted to KTLA. “Probably about five seconds later, I felt my head being hit.”

While she was on the ground, the attacker got on top of her and pulled out a knife, demanding her purse, the station said.

“I felt like “Oh my God, he’s going to rape me,’” she recounted to KTLA. “So I started screaming and fighting him.”

Quintana, who has two children, suffered a broken nose, a broken finger, a black eye, facial bruises, and a concussion, the station said, adding that her finger was nearly severed while she tried to take the attacker's knife.

Image source: YouTube screenshot

“He just kept knocking my head over and over and over again, and there was a point where ... I almost stopped fighting, but I don't know what happened. I just was like, ‘No, I'm not going to stop fighting,’ and I just got back up,” she added to KNBC-TV.

Quintana added to KNBC that she refused to let the attacker take her phone satchel, purse, or bag. Despite it being her first-ever physical altercation, Quintana told KNBC she was able to knock her attacker to the ground twice.

"I just knew I didn't want him to get away with this," she recounted to KTLA. "And I knew I didn't want to die."

Quintana told KNBC about 10 to 15 minutes passed before someone exited a house down the street and her attacker got back on his bike and rode off. No description has been released, KTLA added.

Despite her traumatic experience, Quintana told KTLA she's "not going to let this deter me from going to work early in the morning. I’m going to continue to work, be out, and live my life.”

Her roommate told KTLA a GoFundMe page was set up to help Quintana cover unpaid time off from work and her medical bills.

Anyone with information should call Long Beach Police at 562-435-6711.

Woman hospitalized after brutal attack in Long Beachyoutu.be

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