Los Angeles police are asking for the public’s help in finding a man who reportedly attacked an elderly woman in Koreatown, leaving the 85-year-old with a cracked skull and badly bruised face.

Police said Mi Reum Song was walking on the sidewalk when a man approached her and hit her. At a news conference Monday afternoon, LAPD Capt. David Kowalski said Song was struck in the head and face before she fell unconscious.

The suspect is described as a 35-year-old man, about 5 feet 5 and 150 pounds, according to the LAPD. Kowalski said police obtained a video from a nearby smoke shop that shows a man running away.

The man is a “person of interest,” Kowalski said.


“He was clearly running from that area,” he said. “That elevates the probability that he was probably involved.”

Police said Song was not robbed, but noted that there have been multiple attacks on elderly people in the area before.

“Somebody saw this crime. It happened in the middle of the day in one of the busiest parts of Los Angeles,” Kowalski added. “Please have the courage to come forward.”

In a Facebook post that has been shared thousands of times since Sunday, Song’s granddaughter, Yujin Ko, said her grandmother was on the sidewalk near Olympic Boulevard and Vermont Avenue when she was “struck in her head” by an unknown assailant.


The attack occurred between 2 and 3 p.m. Saturday, Ko said.

“There seemed to be no motive as he had no relation to her nor did he take any of her belongings,” Ko wrote. Photos show Song with a knot in the middle of her forehead and both eyes swollen shut with deep purple bruising. A brown medical wrap is covering the top of her skull, which Ko said was “split open.”

“She told me to let this go because she wants to forgive the man that did this but I can not and I am livid,” Ko wrote, pleading for witnesses who may have seen the attack to call police.


“In the least, let this be a lesson to everyone living in this area to please be vigilant and report any suspicious activity. You can’t be too safe,” she said.

joseph.serna@latimes.com

sarah.parvini@latimes.com


UPDATES:

7:45 p.m.: This article was updated with the name of the victim.

3:30 p.m.: This article was updated with additional details from a police press conference.

This article was originally published at 9:50 a.m.