Runner punched in face, kicked in apparent random attack in Spring Garden

Police are looking for a man who punched a runner in the face and kicked her after she fell to the ground in an apparently random attack in Philadelphia’s Spring Garden section.

The attack occurred about 6 p.m. Tuesday on the 2200 block of Wallace Street in the residential neighborhood.

The 30-year-old runner told police she was running east on Wallace when a man she was about to pass punched her in the face and knocked her to the ground without saying a word.

The assailant then kicked the woman in the face, Chief Inspector Scott Small said.

The man, dressed in a dark gray hooded sweatshirt and lighter gray sweatpants, then walked east on Wallace without taking anything from the runner, Small said. The attack was captured on surveillance video.

The woman, who lives in the neighborhood, told police she did not know the man and had never seen him before, the chief inspector said.

The victim, who told medics she was dizzy and had head pain, was taken to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital for treatment and observation.