A hotel clerk was the victim of a reportedly racist attack while on the job.
Chrystal Caldwell, who is Black and works as a desk clerk at the Mystic Quality Inn in Stonington, Connecticut, explained that a couple beat her up and yelled racial slurs at her. "She said both of her attackers were white and in their late 20s or early 30s," The Day writes.
The 59-year-old—who has been at the inn for seven years—told WTNH that the New York couple was staying there and ended up attacking her twice. The man initially called when he wasn’t getting hot water in his room. Caldwell offered to have maintenance fix it or move the couple to a new room, but Caldwell said the man got angry and began calling her names, also telling her he'd send his girlfriend down to “kick her ass.”
Minutes later, the man came to the front desk. Caldwell notified her general manager and executive housekeeper, who spoke with the man who continued to threaten Caldwell. When she spoke to him, he swung at her over the desk, according to The Day. She fought back, but was still punched in the head; Caldwell said doctors at Pequot Health Center told her she suffered a concussion as well as severe harm to her right eye and damage to her back, ribs, and wrist.
The hotel called the police, who told Caldwell to not leave the employee lounge while they looked at surveillance footage (which is now featured in numerous news stories about the attack). However, when Caldwell went into the hallway to get ice for her face, she was attacked again. The girlfriend first approached Caldwell, blaming her for scratching her boyfriend. The couple then attacked her, pushing her to the ground and kicking her in the ribs. The man attempted to stomp her face, but she was able to get off the ground.
The altercation happened while the police were still in the building.
“I am almost 60 years old, for him to want to physically fight me is very, very, very, very hard for me,” Caldwell told The Day. “We are people, we deserve to be here, I’m an American citizen, I pay taxes. My people don’t deserve to die, we don’t deserve to die. You want to physically harm us and kill us for what? The color of my skin? I’m not foreign, I’m from here. I’m just darker than they are. And I don’t deserve to be treated any different, it’s not right and it has to stop.”
Fox61 reported that the girlfriend who attacked Caldwell sent a message to the news station saying Caldwell attacked them and that her “case would unravel in court." But the New London State’s Attorney’s office and the Stonington police have reportedly been wrapping up extraditable warrants for the man and woman to bring them back to Connecticut.
“Up until now, quite frankly, it’s just been lazy police work,” Caldwell’s attorney John Strafaci told the news station.
The police failed to arrest the couple following the incident. In fact, they were even treated for injuries at a local hospital before returning to New York.
