A woman recounts being hit in the face by a random man while walking with her friend near Union Station over the weekend. 

She said one minute, she was walking with her friend, the next, she felt like she ran into a pole.

Lynsy Howard was passing the man in a crosswalk when the next thing she remembers is holding her face, dazed, confused, and with a pain in her left eye. A red bruise now serves as a horrible reminder of her weekend.

"It honestly did feel like I was running at full speed and ran into a pole," she said. 

Howard spent the past few days icing her face to prevent swelling.

"I started getting anxious thinking about leaving the house," she said. 

Her anxiety comes after a random attack on Saturday afternoon.

Around 4 p.m. Howard and her friend were on Jackson near Union Station when they were forced to cross the street due to construction, and when they did, they came across a man who gave her no worry at first.

She said at first there was no touching as there was a little bit a distance. Then, within seconds, the man threw a punch, hitting her in the face.

"Once he enters my peripheral, I feel a slam, something flew into my head," Howard said.

"After he struck her, she stumbled into the street," friend Linda Ngo said.

Howard's friend snapped an image of the man who casually kept walking, but what frightened them even more was that the guy was holding an object in the other hand.

"I took a video of him. I told him I'm recording him and I'm going to call the police. Once I said I'm calling the police, that's when he took off," Ngo said.

As the friend tried to get images of the attacker, Howard was amazed by the strangers who helped out as they waited for the police to respond.

"For every one person that hurts you, there's 10 times more who are kind, loving, and want to help," Howard said. 

She's grateful her injuries weren't worse, but she's just as concerned about hearing she may not be the only person randomly punched this month downtown.

"Absolutely, it's disheartening to know that's just a single person that's doing it, they're targeting someone they don't know," she said.

As Howard continues to walk daily, she's watching over her shoulder and hoping police find the man before he strikes again.

"Where was he in his life that this is where it came to that you wanted to lash out at a complete stranger," she said.

Howard said after waiting 45 minutes for police to arrive, she decided to go to a station to make the report.

She did share those images of the attacker with the police, who are still investigating this assault.