Copycat Acid Attacker Strikes in Arizona
Just a few days after a stranger threw acid in a Washington woman's face, an M.O.-stealing copycat has attacked another woman in Arizona.
41-year-old Derri Velarde was attacked in the parking lot of a Mesa, Ariz. apartment complex when "a woman suddenly appeared and threw a cup of acid at her," the Daily News reports:
"I saw...a woman, you know, walking up with what looked like a drink in her hand," Velarde told local television station KPNX-TV. "It immediately just started to burn, I was on fire."
The attack bears an eerie resemblance to an earlier story out of Vancouver, Wash., where a stranger approached 28-year-old Bethany Storro with a cup of acid, asked "Hey, pretty girl, do you want to drink this?" and then tossed the acid in her face.
Storro is now recovering, and the AP reports that Velarde is currently being treated for second-degree burns to her face and chest. Both attackers are still at-large, though police believe that Velarde's attack — unlike Storro's — was not random.
[Pic via AP]