A South Florida woman seen in a viral video repeatedly punching another woman who allegedly made a racist comment about Haitians in a hotel lobby is speaking out.
The video that shows the altercation in the Coral Springs La Quinta Tuesday night has been viewed more than 500,000 times since it was posted on YouTube Wednesday.
In the video, 23-year-old Colleen Dagg is involved in a confrontation with a white woman in a teal dress, identified by Coral Springs Police as 39-year-old Summer Cortts.
Dagg, who is also white, told NBC 6 Friday that the other woman said something racist about Haitians.
"I heard something she said and walked out of the building and thought about it for a second and walked back inside to the counter calmly and asked her if I heard her correctly, just like I'm talking to you, no attitude. She said 'don't worry about it, I'm not black,'" Dagg said. "[She said] 'you guys need to do something about all these wet floors over here, you know how these Haitian people are.' To me she was inferring that Haitian people are more likely to sue somebody than another race."
Dagg is seen sitting in a chair as the video begins, taking her shoes off as Cortts curses at her and tells her she'll shoot her in the face if Dagg hits her with her shoes.
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"I'm taking my s-- off so that if she puts her hands on me I can defend myself," Dagg tells a man, who is off camera.
Cortts then gets in Dagg's face and appears to hit Dagg, who gets up and repeatedly punches Cortts, who is dragged to the ground.
"You put your f---ing hands on me, you say some racist-a-- s---!" Dagg yells, while standing over the woman, before three men pull them apart.
"When she touched me, this woman is touching me, I have to defend myself, someone is putting their hands around my neck," Dagg said. "The lady got in my face numerous times and tried to get me to follow her outside, so when I felt trapped where I couldn't do nothing else I sat in the chair and got myself ready to defend myself cause I could see the look in her eyes. I'm not stupid, I know when someone is mad enough to put their hands on me."
In the video, Cortts claims she's three months pregnant.
"I don't know why you was in my face like that then," Dagg responds.
A police officer arrives and Cortts tells him she was attacked.
"Calm down and take a seat, I'm not gonna tell you again," the officer tells her.
"I have a room here, she just hit me, I'm three months pregnant, I want to press charges," Cortts says.
The footage ends with the officer taking information from Cortts.
"It's my job as a white person to correct that in another white person," Dagg said.
Coral Springs Police officials said Dagg was acting in self-defense since she was hit first. Dagg didn't want to press charges against the woman, police said.
Police said Cortts was given a notice to appear for disorderly conduct and was barred from the hotel.
NBC 6 was unable to reach Cortts for comment Friday.
"I know how it would feel, how I would feel if I were all over the internet doing something embarrassing, or having something embarrassing so I feel bad for the lady," Dagg said. "I hope she learned her lesson and I hope a lot of people learn from it."
WARNING: THE FOLLOWING VIDEO CONTAINS EXPLICIT LANGUAGE
