CALIFORNIA – Esra Altun, a 19-year-old Muslim woman who wears a hijab had never felt unsafe at San Jose State University.

But on Wednesday, as she was walking to her in an on-campus parking garage, she was assaulted by a white male. 

As Altun approached her car that afternoon, a man came up behind her in the third-floor of the garage and pulled her by her head scarf, causing it to tighten around her neck and choke her, she said.

Altun said she has dealt with stares and slurs for her faith, but never physical violence until now. 

She said that the election of Donald Trump as president could have played a role by emboldening her attacker.

“For me, it’s kind of a weird coincidence this occurred right after Trump gets to be president-elect,” Altun said. “I’m worried not only for the Muslim community but the Latino community, the black community, the LGBT community. I’m actually terrified.”

Altun’s friends always offer to walk her to her car, but she was alone inside the university’s west parking structure at Fourth and East San Salvador streets around 1:20 p.m. Wednesday when the man grabbed her by her head scarf, she said.

The cloth was tied around her neck so when the assailant pulled her, she began to choke. She reflexively arched her back as he pulled her down, trying to break free and hurting her back in the process, she said.

He finally let go, and she fell knee first to the ground, she said. Altun says she was not seriously injured, but was shaken up as she then drove to her 10-year-old sister’s school.

“When I picked my sister up, that’s when I started completely breaking down,” she said. “I was scared, I was terrified, I was disgusted.”

Altun said she didn’t see her attacker’s face, but noted the skin on his hand was white. He never said anything to her, and quickly ran away afterward, she said.

The school issued a statement Thursday about the attack.

“We are, of course, very concerned that this has occurred on our campus,” university spokeswoman Pat Harris said in the statement. “No one should experience this kind of behavior at San Jose State.”

Harris said the incident could be labeled a hate crime, but police apparently don’t have enough evidence to back up the suspicion.

No arrest has been made. The campus police department referred all questions about the incident to university officials.

Altun’s incident is not to be confused with another Muslim woman getting attacked in a parking lot at San Diego State University.

That woman, wearing a hijab, was robbed  Wednesday afternoon by two men who made comments about Trump and the Muslim community, according to a campus alert.