A heroic fast-food worker lost her eye after trying to stop a man from bullying a special needs boy.
Bianca Palomera, 19, from California, was working her shift on November 12 when she saw four men intimidating the brother of one of her co-workers at Habit Burger Grill in Antioch.
The special needs boy was waiting for her sister to finish work when one of the men started to bully him - as Ms Palomera bravely stepped in to try and break up the verbal assault.
She told the man to stop bullying him and to go away as they threatened to beat the boy up.
The worker told KNTV : “He was throwing threats and slurs saying that he was going to ‘beat him up’, ‘why does he keep looking his way?’. That’s when I step in and I said, ‘It’s not right what you’re doing'.”
The thug then turned to Ms Palomera and punched her in the face in the restaurant lobby - with CCTV from the chain showing the brutal attack.
A fight erupted as multiple customers intervened and tried to stop the men from attacking her, as the 19-year-old managed to escape.
The man fled the store, along with three others, and left in a sliver BMW, with the men thought to be around 16 to21 years old.
Ms Palomera said: “He punched me once, and my headset and my glasses went flying off my face."
She was taken to a nearby hospital for urgent treatment and had an operation on her right eye, but was given the tragic news she had sustained irreversible injuries.
Bianca’s sister, Erika, wrote in a post on Facebook : “As a result of the attack she was rushed to a nearby trauma centre where she underwent emergency surgery.
"Unfortunately, she sustained irreversible injuries that cost her losing her right eye completely.”
Ms Palomera, however, has insisted she has no regrets in trying to help the boy from the bullies.
She said: “This is the last thing I would have expected out of anything. I don’t fully regret helping, stepping in. It could have been worse for my co-worker’s brother.”
Habit Burger said they are “fully assisting the authorities in their efforts to identify the suspected attackers”.
Her family set-up a GoFundMe to help cover her medical bills and raised nearly $100,000 (£84,000) since Sunday afternoon.
The Antioch Police Department confirmed they are investigating the attack but there have been no arrests made.
