Woman beaten, robbed while leaving Vallejo fast food restaurant

VALLEJO, Calif. - A woman of Asian descent was robbed and beaten as she left a Vallejo fast food restaurant, her family said Monday.

Enelia Prez, 71, is being treated at a hospital after she was attacked after leaving the Jollibee Filipino restaurant at Vallejo Plaza near Sonoma Boulevard and Redwood Street at about 7 p.m. Sunday.

"He approached her, grabbed her purse, she struggled and tried to pull it back," said her stepson Dennis Perez. He said the robber persisted and became violent.

"Then he hit her in the head with something, some blunt object. And then she went down," he said.

Her 82-year-old husband witnessed the attack.

"At that point my dad saw him run off to the right into a car, and they just sped off," he said.

The robber escaped with her purse, which had her money and ID.

Family members have been keeping vigil at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Vallejo. Doctors said she suffered bleeding in her brain.

"It's cowardice, really," he said.

The victim, her husband and some friends had gone to see the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. They decided to stop by Jollibee to grab a bite to eat.

She's the latest victim of Asian descent to be attacked in the Bay Area.

"You always hear about it, but when it becomes personal, you know, something really needs to be done about this, I mean it's ridiculous," her stepson said.

Vallejo Plaza includes shops and restaurants popular within the Filipino community.  Shoppers said they were concerned by the attack.

Asians are being "attacked all the time, i don't know why, it's not fair," said Vilma Flordeliz of Vallejo.  "We're not safe anymore. We're not safe, at all."

Leila Adams of Vallejo said, "It doesn't have to be Asian. It could be anyone else, you know, any race. It shouldn't happen to anybody, so this is terrible."