Kim Glass, an Olympic volleyball silver medallist, said she was attacked by a homeless man in Los Angeles over the weekend while saying farewell to a friend.

Glass shared a video on social media of her injured eye and a massive cut on the left side of her nose. She claimed the man struck her with a metal object.

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“As I was leaving lunch, I was outside saying goodbye to a friend and this homeless man ran up. He had something in his hand, he was on the side of the car in the street, and he just like looked at me with some pretty hateful eyes and as I go to tell my friend I think something is wrong with him, before I knew it a big metal bolt like pipe hit me. It happened so fast, he literally flung it from the street,” she explained.

In a later update, Glass said h Her optometrist confirmed her retina was “solid” and she won’t need any procedures.

In 2008, Glass won a silver medal with the United States women’s volleyball team. She contributed to the team’s gold medals at the 2011 Grand Prix and the NORCECA Championship.

Semeon Tesfamariam, the suspected attacker, was then recognised. Bystanders detained him until police arrived and took him into arrest. According to LAPD spokesperson Officer Drake Madison, he was arrested on charges of felony assault with a deadly weapon.

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Tesfamariam, 51, was being jailed without bail at the time.

The homeless crisis in Los Angeles has been a source of tension within the city. George Gascon, the chief prosecutor in Los Angeles, is facing recall. The deadline for the group to send in the collected signatures in order for them to be counted and confirmed was Wednesday. To trigger a recall election in November, the group must gather signatures from 10% of registered voters in the county.

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The recall campaign and Gascon’s opponents have capitalised on an effort to portray him as soft on crime in the midst of a crime epidemic and a string of errors by his office in recent months.

In his defence, Gascon has described the move as a political power grab aimed to “circumvent the democratic process.”

According to the city’s police department, violent crime in Los Angeles has grown by 8% since this time last year, but total arrests have declined by nearly 12%.