A New York City woman was slashed in the neck and repeatedly punched in a violent attack by a convicted felon during a birthday hiking trip in Arizona last week.
Alexis Rowan, 27, was attacked by a local tribe member she had asked for directions after she completed 8 miles of a 10-mile hike on the Havasupai Reservation in The Grand Canyon State last Wednesday, ABC7 reported.
“And as soon as I felt my neck, I’m like, ‘oh my God, I’m going to die,’” Rowan recalled of Havasupai tribe member Taylor Nardo Paya, 29, attacking her from behind after she approached him for directions to the gift shop.
“I was like, oh my God, my neck. I can’t die like this, this is not the way,” she said.
“And I was like, I have my kids to go home to,” the 27-year-old mother added.
The violent attack, in which Rowan was slashed in the neck and repeatedly punched, was caught on a Ring camera nearby.
In the footage, Paya is seen attempting to drag the 27-year-old mother away after she fell to the ground.
After the brutal assault, Rowan required 10 stitches in her neck and three stitches on her left hand.
The 27-year-old’s mother, Tricia Rowan, shared about the “senseless, unnecessary act of violence” on a Havasupai Falls Facebook group on Aug. 15.
“This was a vicious, violent UNPROVOKED attack that almost took my daughter’s life!,” Tricia wrote.
“Taylor Paya slit her throat, punched her repeatedly, pulled her hair, threw her to the ground & tried dragging her to who knows where!”
“Thankfully my daughter is a warrior & FOUGHT for HER LIFE! Screaming for help & begging for her life!,” Tricia added.
Fortunately, a woman nearby heard Rowan’s cries for help and welcomed her inside her home.
“I’m just so grateful for the woman that opened the door that heard her screams, it’s something you can never unhear,” Tricia told ABC7.
“And she’s a fighter. She fought to make sure she’s coming home to her babies and she’s my baby,” Tricia added. “So I’m so glad she made it.”
The 29-year-old Havasupai tribe member — who has been previously convicted for robbery — was tracked down and arrested the following day after Reservation police pinged Rowan’s stolen cell phone.
As the alleged attack on Rowan took place on tribal land, Paya faces a federal charge of assault with deadly weapons, FOX10 reported.
Court documents obtained by the outlet show that in Dec. 2015, Paya robbed a woman outside a home where she was staying and admitted to ripping off several layers of the victim’s clothing before throwing her to the ground and punching her in the face and side.
Paya pleaded guilty in Sept. 2016 and received a 5-year prison sentence as well as being ordered to undergo sex offender treatment and counseling, the outlet reported.
