Nafiah Ikram was the victim of a barbaric attack when her face was doused with acid by stranger in the driveway of her Long Island home.
Four years later, cops still have not caught the suspect.
It was a typical Wednesday night on March 17, 2021 for the 21-year-old pharmacy technician was heading home from a long shift at CVS.
As she was walking towards the front door of her house in Elmont – holding her leftovers from lunch in one hand and her bag in another – she saw someone lunge towards her and toss a liquid substance from a white styrofoam cup at her face before fleeing.
Ikram screamed and immediately felt a burning pain as she rushed to splash water on her face unaware at the time the contents that were in the cup. It also went down her tongue and throat that prevented her from breathing.
She would later learn the acid was sulfuric acid – a dangerous substance that causes blindness and severe burning – and if it would have gotten into her lungs she could have died.
Her panicked parents immediately called 911 and she was transported by ambulance to the hospital. For weeks she stayed in the ICU.
The acid burned three-quarters of the skin on her face including, her cheeks, nose, mouth, chin, upper chest, eyes and wrists. The poisonous substance also melted the contact lenses she was wearing onto her eyes.
Ikram miraculously survived the attack but she would undergo countless excruciating surgeries that left her with severe scarring, disfigurement, chronic pain, and loss of vision in her right eye.
Last month, the now-25 year old marked four years since the nightmare attack and Ikram and her mother both expressed their frustration that the evil person who committed this savage act is still out there.
‘We are pushing all the time to keep going with the community and the public because one of these days they are going to get caught,’ Nafia’s mother, Sherina Ikram told DailyMail.com. ‘I will never give up.’
Nafia Ikram was 21 when the horrific assault happened. She was busy studying medicine at Hofstra while working as a pharmacy technician at CVS
Nafia, now 25, is working on her recovery, inside out, after she was burned with acid in an unprovoked attack on March 17, 2021
On the night of the attack, Ikram recalled someone standing around the fence near her neighbors house staring at her after she got out of her parked car.
‘I got this bad nudge. I felt like death had just come to my gut. I felt like something really bad was going to happen,’ she said.
‘As I was walking in the driveway, I started to recite a surah (Muslim prayer) in my head. The prayer ‘Divine Protection’ tells you how powerful God is and it is supposed to make you feel safe.’
It was a cold night, she remembered, and she was wearing a long coat with layers and asked herself why the person was there outside in the cold.
She told DailyMail.com, ‘when I leaned in to see their face they made eye contact with me and then threw the acid and ran away with the cup,’ she said.
‘At first I was like ‘wtf’ and then my face started burning and I started panicking.’
‘I wiped my eye where the acid burned my eye. I didn’t know how bad it was but I felt my cornea burn and my contacts got stuck to my eyes.’
Then she started to have trouble breathing and started to drool.
When the paramedics got to her home they put an oxygen mask on her.
‘I was going in and out in the ambulance,’ she recalled. ‘They were pouring saline on my face. It was burning so bad. I was passing out.’
‘I thought I was going to die. I had a conversation with God telling him, ‘God I am 21 years old. I cannot go out like this. I refuse to go out like this.’
Before she completely lost consciousness.
Once she was responsive she was able to share with police some of the chilling details from that night.
She told detectives that the attacker was a male, about 6ft. 2 in. with a thin build and wearing gloves.
Surveillance footage captured the attack and police and the FBI reviewed it than released photos of a red 2013-15 Nissan Altima seen speeding away from her home.
Horrifying surveillance footage shows the moment that Nafiah arrived at her Elmont home. A man (right) is seen running up behind her and throwing the acid in her face
Ikram’s mother believes her daughter Nafia and her only child was the victim of a targeted attack and that someone was jealous of her.
‘It was 100 percent planned,’ she said. ‘We don’t know. A customer or a coworker. All of us have enemies we just don’t know who our enemies are.’
She said that when her daughter was working at CVS she was ‘climbing up very quickly and was favored over a lot of people.’
‘She was doing really well there,’ she said. ‘Somebody is so damn jealous of you that they want you to lose your job or want something bad to happen to you.’
The night of the attack, she said ‘she saw a red car was parked across the street 30 minutes before the incident. Someone was waiting for her.’
And, shared her disappointment with the years-long investigation. ‘I don’t know what the police did with the case. The FBI is involved but we’re really not happy.’
Nassau County Police were unable to publicly disclose details of the investigation, but have put up a $30,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest.
‘The investigation continues to remain open and ongoing and we will not rest until the person(s) responsible are apprehended,’ Nassau County Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder said in a statement on Monday.
‘From the inception of the Nafiaf Ikman assault case, the Nassau County Police Department has devoted tremendous investigative resources toward this horrific attack,’ the statement reads.
‘We have expended countless investigative hours, asked for the assistance of the public through the media and social media, and we have been working with multiple Law Enforcement Agencies at the local, state and federal levels.
Ikram with her parents are at a press conference a year after the attack claiming the police have not done enough to get the suspect off the streets
Nafia with oxygen mask was unable to breathe on her own
Nafia has undergone multiple grueling surgeries to her face. She nearly lost her right eye
Doctors are trying to grow new skin on Ikram’s face. She is pictured in hospital after one of the procedures where skin was taken from another part of her body
Ikram has the love and support from her best friend who has been at her side from day one
Despite some of the challenges she continues to face, Ikram is trying to rebuild her life.
Before the attack, she was a busy twenty-something, juggling work and college classes.
She was part-time at Hofstra on a pre-med track while working at CVS and was excited for her future, until it all fell apart in an instant.
The last few years have been grueling in between surgeries and different treatments to repair the burns to her face and wrists.
She shared that she has a team of 13 doctors that are helping in her recovery but revealed the emotional ups and downs.
‘It’s insane. Who do you know has a pain management doctor, an ophthalmologist and a cornea doctor,’ she asks. ‘Who has three eye doctors and doesn’t even have two eyes?.’
One of those doctors is Dr. Eduardo D. Rodriguez, a surgeon at NYU Langone that heads their face transplant program.
Part of her treatment, she said is to grow new skin on her face. This is done by taking skin from other places on her body.
While doctors are working on her physical scars Ikram is working on the emotional scars that has left her with bouts of depression, and anger that she continues to work on with her therapist.
But, talking about that night when her life changed in an instant has been difficult she told DailyMail.com.
‘As soon as I have to talk about something in reference to my trauma it’s like my brain shuts down so I am trying to relearn that skill because a part of me died.’
Looking in the mirror has been part of the therapy and learning to love herself.
‘I see my face but I’m a different person. I am not her anymore,’ she said. ‘I was trying so hard and that’s where the anger came in. I would get so angry.’
‘I would look at old videos, old pictures of myself. I was always positive …that person that you could make you laugh when you were feeling bad.’
‘One day I was with my little cousin, he said to me, “What happened to you? You’re the person that is always bubbly” and I’m like, ‘Yeah, go figure. Have you not seen my face?”
It is that dark humor, she explains, that helps her cope and accept her new reality.
Ikram is hoping to rebuild her life
A recent photo shows the scarring that appears on Ikram’s face and wrists that has been healing though she suffers from chronic pain she is trying to be patient and kind to herself
She smokes medical marijuana that helps her manage the pain.
She has to stay away from certain foods as not to inflame her esophagus where she suffered internal burns.
She is also unable to drive and relies on her parents due to the lack of vision in her eye and hopes one day to be able to drive again.
Some of her triggers is seeing a red car that brings her back to that ghastly night.
Part of her healing is journaling, attending Pilates classes, going to the gym and spending time with her cat, Zen.
Ikram said she is slowly getting back to her new normal. She started taking classes at Hofstra again, and is trying to get back to work as a pharmacy technician.
She continues to do speaking engagements at different schools and organizations in the tri-state area.
Some of the topics she speaks on, she explains, is mostly on ‘adversity, resilience how to find the motivation when you don’t have it, how to deal with feelings like when you are stuck.’
Though she is unsure where her career path will lead her, she knows that she wants to do something that will help other trauma survivors.
The trauma she endured has made her a more compassionate and empathetic human and in the process learning to love herself again.
Ikram’s mother said her daughter still has a lot of burn areas and a lot of scars from her surgery, but shared how much she admires her strength.
‘She’s in a lot of pain but she is trying to manage and move forward with her life.’
A GoFundMe had been set up, shortly after the attack by some neighbors, to help with the expenses.
And, celebrity chef host Padma Lakshmi, who is a friend to the family, shared Ikram’s story to her millions of Instagram followers.
The fundraiser is still active and to date nearly $600,000 has been raised.
Anyone with information is urged to call Crimestoppers at 1-800-244-TIPS.
