We now know the identity of the woman who brutally attacked Santa Monica resident and reality TV star Michelle Yi.
Alexandria Diaz, 25, has been charged with three counts of assault with a deadly weapon, according to published reports.
Lt. Rudy Flores, a spokesperson for the Santa Monica Police Department, The Sun that Ms. Diaz is a missing person from the Fresno area who “suffers from mental illness.”
“It appears that she was possibly off her medication,” he said.
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Diaz was taken into custody early Thursday morning when SMPD responded to a call of a woman acting erratic and hitting parked cars with two metal pipes near 2nd Street and Arizona Avenue
“When officers arrived on scene, they witnessed a female actively hitting a male victim with the pipes. So, they immediately took her into custody,” Flores told Us Weekly.
“Once she was in custody, they discovered that there were two other victims, who were also randomly attacked by this female suspect. One of those victims was Michelle Yi.”
Earlier that morning — just before 6:00 a.m. — Yi, a 2007 contestant on Survivor: Fiji had been preparing to teach a pilates class at an unnamed studio in Santa Monica.
Diaz reportedly entered the studio as customers were arriving and began yelling ‘You stole my identity’ and ‘You’re a prostitute,” Yi told People on Tuesday.
“Santa Monica has a homeless problem, and I’ve dealt with this type of thing before. So I told her, ‘Ma’am, you can’t be here. You need to leave.’”
That’s when the woman came after her with a knife in one hand and a metal rod in the other.
“My face split open,” Yi said. “Blood was everywhere.”
Flores disputes previously published reports of a stabbing.
“Michelle claimed that she was hit in the head,” he told The Sun. “She sustained a laceration of about 2 inches. That was because of the blow with the stick. At one point he suspect had an old reciprocating blade and poked at Ms. Yi. But her main injuries were from the blows with the pipe.”
News of the attack on Yi comes less than 24 hours after Santa Monica installed Ramon Batista, Jr. as its new chief of police.
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