ROCHESTER, N.H. (WHDH/AP) — Police are looking for a man who attacked an 18-year-old woman outside a Planet Fitness gym in New Hampshire, punching her 39 times and leaving her badly injured.
On Tuesday, Rochester police released a 16-second clip on its Facebook page of the 10 p.m. June 12 attack taken from the gym’s surveillance camera.
It shows a man in his 20s — dressed in a white T-shirt, dark shorts and wearing sunglasses — getting out of his car and walking toward the gym. Unprovoked, the man comes up from behind the woman and starts hitting her as she is about to get into her car. The video only shows the first punch.
Erin McCarthy said she had just clocked out of working her shift at the gym and was walking to her car when she saw a man she did not know walk past her.
“I thought someone was just messing with me when they came up behind me. And I turn around, laughing, because I thought someone just pushed me in the back on my head,” said McCarthy. “And then I realized he wasn’t joking because he continued to keep hitting me.”
McCarthy received serious injuries that were not life threatening.
“He didn’t say a single word. I mean, that was disturbing, he didn’t say a single word. He was silent through the whole thing,” said McCarthy.
Police say the man fled in a light-colored Ford Fusion or similar model.
Anyone who recognizes the man or has any information is asked to contact police.
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