Over $106,000 Raised For Hot Dog Vendor Battered In Downtown LA

LOS ANGELES, CA — More than $100,000 was pledged Wednesday to assist a 62-year-old street vendor who was attacked by an unidentified woman in an altercation recorded on video in downtown Los Angeles.

Video has circulated online of the June 15 attack on Arabelia Martinez, which took place around 4 p.m. that day in the 700 block of Figueroa Street.

The vendor's son told reporters the suspect harassed his mother, saying she had no legal right to be a street vendor and telling her to go back to Mexico, among other racially charged statements.

According to a GoFundMe campaign launched by her son, Martinez was "physically and emotionally shaken" as a result of the pummeling she received, and her hot dog cart and equipment were damaged.

Video showed part of the altercation, during which the vendor tosses a powdery substance at the suspect after she apparently squirted some kind of sauce on her hot dogs and cart.

"Since sharing what happened, so many kind and generous people around the world have already reached out wanting to help — and it has truly meant the world to our family," the vendors son wrote on the GoFundMe page. "All funds raised will go directly toward therapy and professional support so she can begin to heal emotionally and mentally."

As of Wednesday, the fundraising effort had raised more than $106,000 toward a goal of $120,000.

On TikTok, a woman claiming to be the other combatant in the fight denied using any racial slurs toward the vendor or asking about her right to be a street vendor. The woman claims it was the vendor who instigated the confrontation by refusing to sell her food.

"When I walked up to her, I had money," the woman says in a series of TikTok videos posted Tuesday. "She told me, 'Me no serve your people.' So yes, I retaliated, and I put Chamoy on her hot dogs. But I did nothing physical to her, to her physically, to her. Maybe to her belongings, but not to her. She physically attacked me first."

The woman claims the vendor threw Tajin powder at her, which felt like pepper spray in her eyes.

"You thought I was just going to sit there and let her throw Tajin on me?" the woman says.

"I had no intentions on hurting her or attacking her," the woman says. "... But after she threw Tajin and attacked me, like what, I was just supposed to walk away with Tajin on my face, my eyes burning? No, I'm not doing that."

She also questioned why the video of the altercation was only posted online recently, suggesting the vendor and her family were using the incident to make money through the GoFundMe page.

"They are using this as a platform to make more money," she said.

The Los Angeles Police Department is investigating the battery as the alleged assailant remains at large.

Anyone with information that could help identify her was urged to call the LAPD's Central Station at 213-486-6606.