DALY CITY, Calif. – A San Francisco woman is recovering after a violent and unprovoked attack in a Daly City shopping center last week.
31-year-old Nicole Malouf had just finished a shift at her pastry shop externship late Thursday night when she stopped at the 24-hour Nation’s Giant Hamburgers at the Westlake Shopping Center.
As she left the restaurant around 11:40 p.m., Daly City police say she was suddenly assaulted just steps from her car.
“On her way out, a guy just starts punching her in the face, and constantly yelling ‘keys,’ and punching her and punching her,” said Tracie Tang, Malouf’s aunt. “And she falls to the ground, she gets back up, and he keeps punching her, until she’s able to grab the handle of the restaurant.”
Police said the suspect ran off. Maloud sustained multiple injuries to her face and body, after being kicked and punched.
“They discovered she has an orbital fracture on her face, she can’t open her eye, her chin is swollen, the whole right side of her face is swollen,” Tang said. “She has a huge cut inside her mouth.”
Tang assumed the role of her mother after Malouf’s mom passed away from an illness four years ago. Malouf’s father died when she was seven.
“I know she’s a little scared. Even when I was at the hospital with her, she says to me, ‘Auntie Tray, I’m glad you’re here.’ I go, ‘Yeah, there’s no way I wouldn’t be.’ I really wish my mom was here,” Tang said, as she became emotional.
Malouf recently graduated from culinary school in early October, after leaving her job at a child care center in South San Francisco to follow her dream of becoming a pastry chef. She is currently uninsured. Tang started a GoFundMe to help cover medical bills.
“Looking at the GoFundMe, it warms my heart that there are so many wonderful people out here, even the anonymous donors that have helped out,” Tang said.
Daly City police confirmed late Monday that a suspect has been arrested in connection with Malouf’s attack. On Saturday, October 18, at around 12:28 a.m., Broadmoor and Daly City Police officers responded to an assault near Edgeworth Avenue and 87th Street, less than two days after Malouf was attacked nearby. Officers recognized similarities between the cases and, using surveillance video and recovered evidence, identified 30-year-old Daly City resident Marc Joseph Buada as the suspect in both incidents.
Buada was taken into custody and faces multiple felony charges, including attempted carjacking and assault.
Malouf and her family are still processing what happened.
“She says, ‘I didn’t do anything, Auntie Tray, I was just walking out of the restaurant,’” Tang recalled. “She was even kind of mad that she lost her $45 worth of food.”
The attack has shocked regulars at the usually busy shopping center.
“I come here often, that’s why I was so surprised to hear that this lady got beat up, that’s cold,” said Peaches Taylor of South San Francisco. “When I do come here, I’m usually not by myself, but I usually feel safe.”