Senior veterans stop assault on woman before Sebastopol Memorial Day ceremony

Witnessing a violent attack before a Memorial Day remembrance event at a Sebastopol cemetery, three veterans -- between the ages of 68 and 83 -- came to the aid of a woman by tackling her assailant, police officials said.

The suspect fled the scene in a blue van after the 9:30 a.m. incident Monday, but police later identified a 36-year-old Santa Rosa woman as the suspect in what officers described as an unprovoked, racially charged assault.

"It took three of these guys to pull her off," Officer Joe Furry said.

Holly Rae Lewis was booked into the Sonoma County Jail on suspicion of committing a felony hate crime and assault with a deadly weapon -- which in this case was her foot, Furry said.

Lewis apparently had become enraged because she couldn't find a family member's grave at the Sebastopol Memorial Lawn cemetery on Bodega Avenue and couldn't find a cemetery employee to help her, according to Furry.

For unknown reasons, she turned her apparent anger toward a 60-year-old woman who was seated on a bench, talking to her daughter in another language, Furry said.

Police said Lewis "made a racially charged remark regarding the victim's manner of speech" and then attacked her, punching and kicking her in the head.

Nearby, members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3919 had already begun gathering at the cemetery before their 11 a.m. Memorial Day ceremony and saw the assault.

They tackled Lewis long enough to end the attack but the woman ran off and left in a blue van, police said.

Witnesses noted the van's license plate and although the letters and numbers were in the wrong order, a Sebastopol dispatcher used that information -- along with the name of the family member whose grave the assailant had been seeking -- to identify Lewis as the suspect, Furry said.

Police arrested Lewis at her Santa Rosa home. She remained in custody Monday on $30,000 bail and is scheduled to appear in court Wednesday.

You can reach Staff Writer Julie Johnson at 521-5220 or julie.johnson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jjpressdem.

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