WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Helena has called West Palm Beach home for the past five years and is fed up with drivers using her neighborhood streets to perform dangerous stunts. For safety reasons, she declined to provide her last name.
"It is really hard to comprehend that we're living in this environment," Helena, who didn't want to give her last name, said.
She said chaotic car gatherings have been occurring for the past two years, and police haven't done enough to stop it.
"This is a gang," she said. "You cannot ignore that. We're in West Palm Beach, and I hope that they really do something about it."
Over the weekend, she said the stunts took a violent turn for her and her husband. While driving home from dinner, she said, they wound up stuck in traffic after a crowd and several reckless drivers shut down Forest Hill Boulevard and Georgia Avenue.
"I cannot begin to tell you, my knees were shaking," she said. "I really, honestly, thought that he would get killed."
When her husband got out of the car to record tag numbers for police, she said, two men immediately confronted him, and moments later, he was attacked. She said they threw him to the ground, smashed his phone and unleashed several blows to his face and chest.
"He got a really bad punch on his face," Helena said. "His face was super swollen the next day. He had, you know, bleeding from the knees, back pain (and) hip pain."
When the police arrived, she said, the crowd quickly disbursed. She's hoping something is done soon before someone else gets hurt.
"I don't want to point fingers," she said. "I want to make sure that a difference is made, even if it's at my husband's expense."
According to a spokesman with the West Palm Beach Police Department, an ongoing criminal investigation is underway and officers are working to make an arrest.