A TikTok star with over 17 million followers, Bella ‘onlyjayus’ Avila, found her attacker with the help of fans on the social media platform after being “repeatedly punched” during a Metallica concert.
The content creator has recorded over 830 million likes during her time on the video-sharing platform. Her uploads are normally lighthearted, with topics ranging from fun facts to general life tips followers can take on board.
On May 29, one of her clips had racked up over 500,000 likes, but for very different reasons. Bella explained that during a Metallica concert – at the Bottlerock Festival in Napa, California – she was assaulted in the VIP section. The event started on May 27 and ended two days later.
The TikToker reported the aggressor to Bottlerock security and urged viewers to come forward with any information regarding his identity if they recognize him. Just hours later and detectives across TikTok solved the case, confirming the identity of the man in question.
TikTok star onlyjayus assaulted at Bottlerock Festival
In her initial TikTok video, she explains that a moshpit broke out behind her which led to a slight crowd surge in her direction.
From there, she was pushed into a guy in front, who allegedly responded with aggression.
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Talking through her experience, the creator said: “This man’s response [after the accidental bump] was to push me to the ground, where I ended up hitting my head. When I stand back up, kind of like ‘what the f**k’, this man grabs me by my shirt and repeatedly punched me in the face.”
Bella included the photographs of not just the man who had assaulted her, but also shots of her face after the punches. There was no visible bruising on her jaw at the time of recording, though photos from the day of the event showed markings above the eye.
More footage was posted by her on Twitter, which has since been submitted to security.
Anyone in the Napa area recognize this guy?
The mosh pit behind us pushed me into him. His response was to push me to the floor. When I got back up he grabbed me by the shirt & punched me in the face 4 times
I got this vid to show security but he ran before they could find him pic.twitter.com/nlV6EsXYjl
— onlyjayus (@notjayus) May 28, 2022
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Following the repeated punches, the social media influencer wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt by explaining he had hit a woman.
Standing at over six feet tall, Avila assumed he may be more remorseful after this was explained, yet she said he followed up with: “I don’t give a f**k.”
Once they were separated, Avila fled the scene for a few moments and upon return, the guy was gone. The male was clean shaved, wearing a Velvet Antlers Technology cap and a camo jacket.
The experience has naturally put a downer on the festival for onlyjayus, too.
After posting the clip, she replied: “I’m at the festival again right now and can’t really enjoy the music because I’m too busy scanning the crowd.”
Onlyjays attacker identified
After posting her public callout to TikTok. Onlyjaysus was able to post a lightning turnaround thanks to sleuths the world over. In a video posted less than 48 hours after alerting the internet to her attack, an extremely pleased Bella announced: “we found him.”
Continuing, she said: “in 24 hours you guys were able to find him and send me his name, age, phone number, address, place of business, and his wife and son’s number.” The TikToker then clarified that the assailant admitted to the assault over the phone.
Bella also announced she passed on all relevant information to the police before pressing charges, as well as promising to keep everyone updated with the next steps in this process.