A Minnesota Democratic Farmer Labor (DFL) Party member, who previously supported efforts to defund the police, was violently assaulted and carjacked in the presence of her children at their home.
Shivanthi Sathanandan, the Second Vice Chairwoman for the DFL, shared an image of her bloodied face following the Tuesday attack detailing the incident to her Facebook account calling for her assailants to be held accountable.
"Yesterday, my children and I were violently car jacked in the driveway of our home in Minneapolis," Sathanandan wrote. "Four very young men, all carrying guns, beat me violently down to the ground in front of our kids."
The assailants reportedly held Sathanandan's neighbors at gun point after they attempted to help her.
"Look at my face in the picture. This is the face of a mother who just had the s--- beaten out of her," she continued. "A mother whose only thought was, 'Let me run far enough and fight hard enough so that my kids have a chance to get away.'"
Sathanandan said her children cried for help as she was assaulted.Loading...
Santhanandan revealed she sustained a broken leg and deep lacerations in her head along with bruising and cuts all over her body.
"I have rage. I have NO DOUBT that they have done this before," she said. "Yet they are still on OUR STREETS. Killing mothers. Giving babies psychological trauma that a lifetime of therapy cannot erase. With no hesitation and no remorse."
Santhanandan said she was now a part of crime statistics.
"I wasn't silent when I fought these men to save my live and my babies, and I won't be silent now," she continued. "We need to get illegal guns off of our streets, catch these young people who are running wild creating chaos across our city and HOLD THEM IN CUSTODY AND PROSECUTE THEM. PERIOD."
Santhanandan insisted readers remember her face when they support letting juveniles and young people out of custody instead of holding them accountable for committing crimes.
"You could have been reading the obituary for me and my children today. But instead I'm here to write this," she said. "These criminals will not win. We need to take back our city, and this will not be the last you heard from me about this."
She concluded by thanking Minneapolis police and other elected officials along with her neighbors and fellow DFL members who assisted Santhanandan following the assault.
Some X users noted Santhanandan had previously supported efforts to defund the police following the death of George Floyd in 2020. "We are going to dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department," Santhanandan wrote in a June 2020 Facebook post following Floyd's death.Loading...
The June 2020 Facebook post continued encouraging "allies" to "listen and learn from our black siblings." "[Minneapolis Police Department] has systematically failed the Black Community, they have failed ALL OF US," she concluded. "It's time to build a new infrastructure that works for ALL communities."
