On July 12, a man was identified officially as Semeon Tesfamariam and arrested for the attack on Olympian Kim Glass. He was charged with felony assault with a deadly weapon. The Los Angelos County District Attorney George Gascon spoke about the details of the arrest of the 51-year-old perpetrator and the attack.
Gascon said that Semeon had several prior violent felonies; one in 2018, 2019, and 2020 before he allegedly assaulted Glass. Gascon stated that Semeon was on parole when he committed his most recent crime.
“This was a brutal, unprovoked attack. Mr. Tesfamariam has a troubling history of attacking random people with dangerous weapons. His behavior appears to have escalated with time,” Gascon said in the release. “We have asked the court to detain him to protect the public preventatively. The court granted that request, and he is currently being held without bail.” He explained.
Semeon has been in custody since the attack. “On July 8, Tesfamarian allegedly approached the victim and threw a 10-inch metal bolt at her face resulting in serious injuries,” Gascon said. “Good Samaritans at the scene detained the defendant while police arrived.”
Semeon faces up to 11 years in prison.
Glass told Fox News about her recovery process and feelings after the attack.
“I’m healing. My emotions change every day,” Glass told the interviewers. “I’m always really grateful and happy that this didn’t turn out as bad as it could have been.”
She continued to express how the attack never should’ve happened because, with rising crime rates, the number of people being let free without adequate monitoring on parole is dangerous.
“I think that we all deserve the opportunities of freedom, but not if you’re a terror to society,” Glass articulated. “History is repeating itself with this. He was let out on probation, and he attacked someone else.”
“There’s been other victims around Los Angeles, and it keeps on happening. Everyone’s paying attention to me because I’m an Olympian. But these…other victims haven’t been vindicated.”
