Woman Attacks 3-Year-Old Boy on the Street for Bringing Bad Luck

Woman Attacks 3-Year-Old Boy on the Street for Bringing Bad Luck
A family mourning lost family members in China. (STR/AFP/Getty Images)
Daniel Holl
5/20/2019
Updated:
9/6/2019

A woman attacked a 3-year-old boy on a street in broad daylight under the pretense of attempting to divert bad luck. The child received at least seven stitches on his head, according to Chinese online media The Paper.cn.

The incident occurred in Guangdong Province, China on May 11. The attack only stopped when a passerby intervened. The woman, surnamed Lei, was detained by police in Taishan City, the report said.

Bad Luck or Bad Behavior?

Lei attacked the boy since she believed that the boy’s grandmother, last name Zhang, carried bad luck for being in mourning over her recently deceased mother, according to the report. However, it is unclear how Lei identified Zhang’s loss.

Zhang reportedly went into Lei’s corner market on May 11.

Lei believed that since Zhang came into her store, she brought a field of bad luck. And Lei believed she had to do something to dispel it.

Security camera footage revealed Lei approaching Zhang’s grandson, who was playing with his older sister, according to an interview with the boy’s father by short-video news outlet Pear Videos.

“She asked, ‘where’s your grandma?’ And he said ’she’s at home washing dishes,'” the boy’s father told Pear Videos. “Then she took out a water pipe that she had hid in her bag.”

The footage shows Lei walking directly behind the boy, and taking an object out of her pink purse. Without hesitation, she strikes the boy on the back of the head. His knees buckle, causing him to fall to the ground, and Lei misses her next attack.

This does not stop her, as she continues swinging, and the boy attempts to crawl away. By the fourth swing, a man who happened to park a moped right next to the incident, runs toward Lei.

He shoves her backward, and she topples to the ground. The man goes back and forth between looking at the boy and Lei, and the two adults point fingers at one another.

After the boy was taken to the hospital, he received seven to eight stitches, according to various reports. His back also had several bruises.

Lei was later detained by the local police.

Daniel Holl is a Sacramento, California-based reporter, specializing in China-related topics. He moved to China alone and stayed there for almost seven years, learning the language and culture. He is fluent in Mandarin Chinese.
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