Pegah Shayesteh says her father’s jewelry store in downtown Los Angeles was looted on May 29.

Shayesteh’s father, an immigrant from Iran, took out a loan on his house to open the jewelry store, after recovering from prostate cancer.

Just when business was starting to pick up, the coronavirus pandemic shut them down, Shayesteh said, and her father was not able to get any government assistance.

“He has nothing to fall back on it,” Shayesteh said. “How is he going to pay mortgage? How is he going to continue life?”

Then, during largely peaceful protests against police violence that were accompanied by groups who smashed windows, looted multiple stores and set cars on fire, her father’s store was destroyed. Even the security gate in front of the store was ripped off.

She says she supports the Black Lives Matter movement and believes in the power of peaceful protesting, but not in violence and looting.

“They’re messing with people’s lives,” she said. “Some people may never recover.”

Shayesteh said her father put his entire life savings into the store and now he has nothing left. She is raising money through a GoFundme page to help him rebuild.