Survivor: Fiji

Michelle Yi attack: three assault counts, no hate crime charge

The Los Angeles County District Attorney filed three counts of assault with a deadly weapon on 18 October 2021 over the Santa Monica attack that injured Michelle Yi and two other people. No hate crime count was filed. Santa Monica police said there was no indication the attack was a hate crime.

Confirmed The charging decision and the police statement come from contemporaneous Santa Monica and Los Angeles reporting. The outcome of the prosecution has not been established here, and the counts are labelled as charges throughout.

Michelle Yi Michelle Yi

What the record shows

  • Confirmed The Los Angeles County District Attorney filed three counts of assault with a deadly weapon on 18 October 2021. The filing carried no hate crime count and no hate crime enhancement.
  • Confirmed Michelle Yi was attacked shortly before 6 a.m. on Thursday 14 October 2021 outside the Platinum Pilates studio where she taught, near 2nd Street and Arizona Avenue in Santa Monica. She was stabbed in the left arm and struck on the hand and head with a metal pole. Two other people were attacked in Santa Monica that morning.
  • Confirmed Santa Monica Police public information officer Rudy Flores said there was "no indication whatsoever that this was a hate crime." CBS News reported that investigators had no information allowing them to determine whether the attack was one.
  • Confirmed Yi said she could not be certain she had been targeted because of her race.
  • Charged, unresolved Alexandria Diaz, 25, of Fresno, was charged with three counts of assault with a deadly weapon, filed by the Los Angeles County District Attorney in Los Angeles County Superior Court on 18 October 2021. No verdict, plea or dismissal has been located, so no outcome has been reached on this record and the counts remain allegations by the state.
  • Unverified The final disposition of the prosecution is unknown. No docket entry, judgment or later news report establishing how the case ended could be opened.

What was actually filed

On 18 October 2021 the Los Angeles County District Attorney filed three counts of assault with a deadly weapon over a series of attacks in Santa Monica four days earlier. One of the people injured was Michelle Yi, who played Survivor: Fiji in 2007. The filing carried no hate crime count and no hate crime enhancement.

That is the criminal case as it can be documented. Charges are what a prosecutor alleges at the start. They are not a finding, and nothing here should be read as one.

What happened on 14 October 2021

Shortly before 6 a.m. on Thursday 14 October 2021, Yi was attacked outside the Platinum Pilates studio where she taught, near 2nd Street and Arizona Avenue in Santa Monica. She was stabbed in the left arm, reported as with a rusted saw blade, and struck on the hand and the head with a metal pole. Her Apple Watch was shattered and she needed stitches for a gash above her left eyebrow.

Two other people were attacked in Santa Monica that same morning. Yi survived and spoke publicly about the attack in the days that followed.

Why the hate crime label does not hold up

Santa Monica Police public information officer Rudy Flores said there was "no indication whatsoever that this was a hate crime." CBS News reported that investigators had no information allowing them to determine whether it was one. The District Attorney then filed three assault counts and no hate crime count.

Several outlets nonetheless headlined the story as a suspected anti-Asian hate crime. That framing is not supported by the police statement or by the charges. Yi herself said she could not be certain she had been targeted because of her race. Her own reflections on safety are not a claim about the attacker's motive and should not be quoted as one.

The woman charged, and what is still open

The person charged is Alexandria Diaz, 25, of Fresno. Police said she had been reported missing before the attacks, and described her as living with mental illness and apparently not taking her medication. No diagnosis is named here, because naming one would go past what the record supports.

No verdict, plea or dismissal in the prosecution has been located. Diaz has not been shown to have been convicted of anything arising from that morning. The distinction matters: charged means the state has made an accusation, and convicted means a court has entered a judgment. Only the first of those is established here.

Which season Michelle Yi played

Yi played Survivor: Fiji, the fourteenth season, which aired in 2007. She was on Ravu, then Moto, then Bula Bula, was the ninth castaway voted out on day 24, and sat on the jury. She has not returned to the show.

She was 37 at the time of the attack and was teaching pilates in Santa Monica. Her Survivor connection is why the attack was reported nationally, and it is also why a story about three assault charges travelled as something else.

People in this story

Questions people ask

Was the Michelle Yi attack a hate crime?
No hate crime count was filed. A Santa Monica police spokesman said there was no indication of one, and CBS News reported that investigators had no information allowing them to determine whether the attack was a hate crime.
What charges were filed over the Santa Monica attack?
Three counts of assault with a deadly weapon, filed by the Los Angeles County District Attorney on 18 October 2021 over attacks on three people. There was no hate crime count and no hate crime enhancement.
What injuries did Michelle Yi have?
She was stabbed in the left arm and struck on the hand and the head with a metal pole outside the Santa Monica studio where she taught. Her Apple Watch was shattered and she needed stitches above her left eyebrow.
Was anyone convicted of attacking Michelle Yi?
Not on the located record. Alexandria Diaz was charged with three counts of assault with a deadly weapon in October 2021. No verdict, plea or dismissal has been found, so the counts remain allegations by the state.
What season of Survivor was Michelle Yi on?
Survivor: Fiji, the fourteenth season, in 2007. She played on Ravu, Moto and Bula Bula, was the ninth castaway voted out on day 24, finished tenth and served on the jury.

Sources

Checked on 2026-07-26. If something here is wrong or out of date, we want to know: get in touch.