They hit her in the face with a brass pipe after she and her boyfriend tried to drive away.
Jessica Byrnes-Laird, 18, was brutally attacked at a Louisiana gas station by a group of men who were catcalling her, KTBS reports. Byrnes-Laird and her boyfriend, 21-year-old Jared Pelletier, had stopped at a gas station after a day spent swimming. Laird was still in her bikini and waited outside while her boyfriend went inside to buy cigarettes.
Byrnes-Laird says a group of men approached the car she was sitting in and began harassing her. When Byrnes-Laird's boyfriend came back outside, he tried to fight the men, before deciding to get into the car and drive off. As they pulled away, one of the men threw a brass pipe at the car, hitting Byrnes-Laird in the face. She had four teeth knocked out and her upper lip torn open (her boyfriend's mother has set up a Go Fund Me page to help pay for her surgeries).
"There's a little bit of fear, honestly, because going through this make you realize how delicate life is, and you never know what can happen," Byrnes-Laird said about the assault. But she's grateful for all the kindness she's been shown. "All the support that's been shown towards me, I'm so extremely thankful," she says.
Survellience footage from the gas station shows the suspects, although the altercation and pipe-throwing happens just off camera. Shreveport, Louisiana authorities are still searching for the suspects and ask anyone with information to contact Crime Stoppers.