Controller candidate Wilcox attacked near LA City Hall

Rob Wilcox, a city controller candidate and spokesman for the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office, said he was attacked Friday near City Hall.

Wilcox was walking in the area of First Street and Los Angeles Street near the Joy Picus Child Development Center at about noon when he was approached by “a person likely experiencing homelessness and exhibiting erratic behavior,” according to an email to staffers in the City Attorney’s Office sent by chief of staff Kathleen Kenealy.

Wilcox told the Los Angeles Times that the “extremely agitated and angry” man began shouting at him and shoving him, at one point using a racial slur and kicking him in the shin.

Wilcox ran into the street and tried to flag down a car, but no one would stop and the man kept shoving him, The Times reported. Wilcox then ran to the door of the Joy Picus Child Development Center and yelled for help, but no one answered.

He fled into a City Hall parking garage, but the man did not follow him.

Kenealy’s said Wilcox — who was not named in the email to staff — was “unharmed, though shaken up.” However, the suspect was not apprehended, and the Los Angeles Police Department could not provide further details on the attack.

“We have reported the incident to LAPD, and we will step up our efforts to insist that LAPD and (the General Services Department) find solutions to better protect our staff as they come and go from our offices,” Kenealy said.

“I’m fine, but around noon today near City Hall East, I was attacked,” Wilcox tweeted Friday evening. “I was shoved and kicked. Unfortunately, the attacker was not apprehended. Sadly, this is all too common in our city today. I was lucky, I’m OK, so many others are not. We can do better than this LA!”