Woman's Racist Tirade Could Lead To Arrest As Backlash Grows

TORRANCE, CA — As hundreds showed up at a Torrance park Friday to support a local woman who was the victim of a racist tirade caught on camera, police are asking for help finding the woman who threatened her. The woman was identified Friday as a suspect in a string of racist attacks in the area, according to police.

Two Asian-Americans exercising independently at a Torrance park were berated, cursed at and threatened by a woman, who told one of them "This is not your place. This is not your home. We do not want you here." Video of one of the encounters went viral and prompted an outpouring of support for a young woman who victimized by the outburst. It didn't take long for the woman in the video to be identified, according to police.

The woman was identified Friday as a Long Beach resident, and police asked for the public's help finding her. Torrance police Chief Eve Berg said 56-year-old Lena Hernandez is the subject of two crime reports taken by officers this week following confrontations that occurred Wednesday at Wilson Park on Crenshaw Boulevard.

In the first case, Hernandez was caught on video verbally accosting a young woman exercising at the park.

"Go back to whatever (expletive) Asian country you belong in," the woman yelled. "... This is not your place. This is not your home. We do not want you here."

On Thursday, an Asian man posted a video online showing him and his son being accosted and mocked by the same woman on the same day.

"You need to go home," the woman tells the man.

Berg said the same woman is suspected in an October incident, in which she allegedly verbally assaulted a custodian at Del Amo Mall in Torrance, then physically attacked a female bystander who tried to intervene.

"Our hope is that the members of our community will never have to endure such treatment," Berg said.

She asked for the public's help locating Hernandez, but declined to say what actual crime she may have committed.

"A lot of this might not rise to the level" of a crime, "but some of it may," she said.

On Friday morning, hundreds of people gathered at Wilson Park for a group workout and community demonstration in opposition to the woman's comments.

"I was shocked because I run at this park probably four times a week," one of the demonstrators told ABC7. "And to see that so close to home, I was like, wow, it's really happening near me."

Torrance Mayor Patrick Furey on Friday also condemned what he saw on the videos.

"The city of Torrance does not in any way condone the language or activities that were done in our public space, Wilson Park, by this suspect," he said. "In fact, it's nauseating to absolutely anybody in our community. We are a diverse community -- more than 80 languages spoken in the city of Torrance, somewhere between 30 and 40 percent of our population are Asian or Asian-Pacific Islander. More than 200 Japanese businesses have their corporate headquarters in our city. ... We truly are a diverse population and businesses community. That's what incensed us about this."

City News Service and Patch Staffer Paige Austin contributed to this report.