Posted on October 31, 2022

Mother Speaks Out After Daughter Stabbed by Homeless Man in North Hollywood

Chris Wolfe and Travis Schlepp, KTLA, October 17, 2022

A young woman is recovering at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center from a brutal random attack by a stranger who was walking past her in broad daylight.

The attack happened last Monday in North Hollywood when 24-year-old Kyli Watts was walking on Lankershim Boulevard.

The suspect, identified as 30-year-old Jonathan Cole, allegedly plunged a pair of gardening shears with four-inch blades into the back of Watts’s head. Surveillance video showed it happened without provocation {snip}

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Amy Watts, Kyli’s mother, told KTLA that while she is upset about what happened to her daughter, she has no hatred for her attacker.

“There is no ill regard toward this human, no anger, no bad feelings,” Amy Watts said. “We’ve been a foster family for 15 years taking care of some severely mentally ill individuals. She understands that this is a very sick person.”

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She says what happened to her daughter was a “social and systemic failure” on behalf of the sick people who need the most help.

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But Amy Watts is just grateful that her daughter is still alive and hopes more will be done to help those stuck on the streets and struggling with mental illness.

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