Shamichael Manuel, victim in the “Sharkeisha” fight video, which left her beaten and bruised spoke out about the incident recently, saying she “forgives” Sharkeisha--a former friend.
Manuel, a high school girl from Houston, was identified as the victim in the brutal assault that was captured on video and uploaded to Instagram before it went viral last week.
Manuel and her mother, Olivia Henderson, gave an interview on Friday evening, describing the incident.
She said Sharkeisha was angry over a boy, but it was really “over nothing,” she said, adding that she knew the girl since she was a freshman in high school.
In the video, Sharkeisha allegedly sucker punches and then hits and kicks Manuel in the face before a bystander pulls her off. The video was eventually taken off Instagram but users on Twitter were still heavily talking about it as of Saturday night.
Manuel told KHOU she was humiliated by the whole thing, saying she was also left with a black eye and facial injuries.
“What was going through my mind was, ‘Oh my God; I can’t believe this is happening. This is happening right now,” she said, describing what she was thinking about when she was getting assaulted.
Henderson said she spoke with police after the incident, saying that her daughter was “lured over” an apartment to get her stuff but she was jumped by Sharkeisha.
“When the girl Shelby said something to her, she turned her head and that’s when Sharkeisha hit her,” she said, adding that Shelby was holding the camera to record the incident.
Henderson said she filed an assault charge against Sharkeisha on Nov. 19, but then someone uploaded it to World Star Hip Hop and it went viral. In a week, it had more than 12 million views. Instagram later took the video down from its site a day later.
“A guy down in Houston made a rap video about it,” Henderson said, adding that people made horrible comments online about her daughter and said that people “glorified Sharkeisha.” She said that users online made fun of her daughter.
“Bullying needs to stop and videotaping assaults need to stop,” Henderson stressed.
The “Queen Sharkeisha” Twitter account has acquired more than 37,000 Twitter follower since video went viral.
Users have even started using her name as a verb. “Imma sharkeisha alll of yall. Think im playin,” wrote one user on Sunday morning.
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