BILLINGS — A family is looking for answers after a young woman was attacked in the Billings Heights as she was throwing away garbage during a shift at work.
The assault occurred around 9 p.m. Sunday in a spot between 3G's and Edgewood Vista on Wicks Lane.
The woman, whom MTN is not identifying, is an employee at Edgewood Vista, a memory care facility.
"I threw the garbage in, I turned around to walk back to the building and I heard running behind me. And when I turned around, I got popped in the face and it went black from there," the woman said.
She tells MTN that two women ran up behind her, punched her in the face, and tried to stab her. The attack only ended when another coworker came outside to throw away trash as well.
"If my employee wouldn't have came out, they probably would've killed me," she said.
Billings police corroborated the woman's story and tell MTN they are still investigating.
“I at first was thinking it was random, but they didn't steal anything. I still had my keys phone ring, watch everything, so they didn't try to steal from me," the woman said. "So that's how I think it wasn't random and everybody's been in and out taking garbage and nobody got hurt till I went out there.”
The woman's relative, Starr Emery, lives in the neighborhood and says the whole family is rattled.
“We're only three blocks away from where the attack happened, so I don't feel comfortable letting the kids play out in the yard, without supervision because we can't guarantee that they're safe," Emery said.
The young woman believes the attackers may be people who know her, perhaps stemming from an old feud, but her family isn't convinced and say she may have been in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“I'm a little bit concerned about the rising crime that's been going on in our community and the rising gang activity, the assaults happening in our schools and now in our homes," Emery said. "It's scary."
Edgewood Vista and 3G's do not have outdoor cameras, but the family is hopeful someone with home security cameras might have picked something up.
"They were on foot when the assault happened. They ran up on her and then they also left on foot. So we know in this day and age where everyone has exterior cameras that someone must have caught it somewhere," Emery said.
