For aspiring model Nicole Kyaw, it was a day that may forever alter the course of her life. On Tuesday, Kyaw, 18, was on her way to work at Urban Nation, a clothing store in the Fayette Mall in Lexington, Ky. when she was approached by two women.
“They were waiting outside the store for a couple of hours, a witness told me later,” Kyaw told the Daily News. Kyaw said she recognized one of the women from Facebook as the ex-girlfriend of a man she had recently dated. After receiving several threatening messages warning her to “stay away” from the man, Kyaw had blocked her.
“I’d never seen her in person, just on Facebook.” Kyaw said. “Then she came walking up beside me, and I thought, is that her? She was staring at me and I said, ‘are you serious?’”
What happened next still feels like a bad dream to Kyaw.
Nicole Kyaw, 18, was on her way to work at Urban Nation, a clothing store in the Fayette Mall in Lexington, Ky. when she was attacked by two women.
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“I was tackled to the ground,” she said. “Her friend held me down and she attacked me, she cut an X into my face. She looked at me dead in the eye and smiled before she did this.”
Despite her struggles and the violent nature of the attack, Kyaw says no one at the mall intervened or even said anything to the two women.
Bleeding profusely, Kyaw ran into Urban Nation and the manager called 911. When police arrived, Kyaw identified one of her assailants as Kristin Nicole Caldwell, who Kyaw said shared a child with her former boyfriend.
As of Friday evening, no arrest had been made in the case, a fact that troubles Kyaw.
“I was told they were waiting on a detective,” Kyaw said. “I’m kind of pissed off. They should have been arrested by now.”
Nicole Kyaw, 18, still wants to model despite her face being scarred.
Messages left by the Daily News with the Lexington police commander in charge of the case were not returned.
Kyaw now must wait to see whether the wounds on her face will impact her nascent modeling career, but she’s trying to put the whole incident in perspective.
“Modeling is still what I want to do, but the doctors told me that if it had been a couple of inches lower, I could be dead right now. I don’t want to sit and cry about what she did to my face.”
Kyaw now knows that her attackers called the store and learned whether she would be working that day, and believes they went after her face because she knew she hoped to make a living as a model.
Despite all that, she still feels some compassion for the woman who attacked her.
“This woman wasn’t thinking of her son when she did this,” Kyaw said. “It will leave a scar on my face, but it will ruin her life.”