A female district attorney from San Bernardino, California, was found bloody and beaten after going for a jog on Thursday morning.

Authorities say the employee was jogging in Newport Beach when she walked into a gym around 5.50am and asked for help.

A law enforcement source familiar with the investigation told City News Service the victim was about to give her closing argument in a gang-murder trial and may have been targeted by gang members.

A female district attorney from San Bernardino, California, was found bloody and beaten after going for a jog on Thursday morning (Pictured, Newport Workout gym where the victim asked for help)

Authorities say the employee was jogging in Newport Beach when she walked into a gym around 5.50am and asked for help looking 'as if a bucket of red...paint was poured over her head and every part of her face and shirt was red', according to a trainer (Pictured, blood stains and a bloody hand print left behind by the attacked woman)

Trainer Ron Cary told Fox 11 Los Angeles that the woman stumbled into Newport Workout gym looking very disoriented and barely able to walk.

'We turned around and saw a woman who could barely walk covered in head to toe in blood,' he said.

'It looked as if a bucket of red...paint was poured over her head and every part of her face and shirt was red.'

Cary said he heard the woman tell arriving officers that she is a deputy district attorney in the Inland Empire.

'She said: "I'm in the middle of a murder trial. I'm on a murder trial and I was attacked from behind",' he said.

The woman had a laceration on her head and was taken to a trauma center, according to police. Trainer Ron Cary (pictured) said he heard the woman say she was in the middle of a murder trial

The victim couldn't describe the assailant but said it was a man who attacked her from behind. He was still on the loose as of Friday morning (Pictured, Newport Workout gym)

Sources say the victim was about to give her closing argument in a gang-murder trial and may have been targeted by gang members (Pictured, San Bernardino County district attorney's office)

The victim couldn't describe the assailant but said it was a man who attacked her from behind. He was still on the loose as of Friday morning.

Police spokeswoman Jennifer Manzella said the woman had a laceration on her head, and possibly other injuries, and was taken to a trauma center for treatment.

Christopher Lee, a spokesman for the San Bernardino County district attorney's office, wrote in an email that 'a member of our office was involved in an incident that is currently under investigation'.

He declined to provide other details, citing the ongoing investigation and the employee's privacy.