Grandmother, 63, Attacked And Robbed Inside Bronx Apartment Building; 2 Suspects Sought
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Police are searching for the suspects responsible for a brutal attack on a Bronx grandmother. The woman is now so shaken, she's afraid to leave her apartment.
CBS2's Dave Carlin spoke with the victim and her family on Sunday afternoon.
She doesn't trust her surroundings anymore and asked Carlin to keep her identity a secret after she was violently robbed and left with a sliced finger.
Building surveillance video shows the 63-year-old struggling with an armed attacker. His hand is seen over her mouth before she is thrown to the ground. The attacker then used a knife to slash open her bag. He gashes her finger in the process. The victim was rushed to Jacobi Medical Center, where she received seven stitches, family members told police.
The second man captured on video appears to be the lookout.
There is a moment as she flees up these stairs you wonder if they will follow her to the apartment where her adult daughter, son-in-law and three grandchildren live.
Instead, they ran out of the building as she ran up.
She then told CBS2's Carlin in Spanish that she hopes both get thrown in jail.
A video from a deli around the corner shows the suspects. One has her cash in his pocket, $200 she intended to use shopping for gifts.
Now it is his and the video show the man with a big smile on his face.
The suspects were last seen on a block of Southern Boulevard leaving in a getaway car.
The woman thinks the men followed her from where she exited a bus at the corner and walked up to the building on Leggett Avenue. It was around 5 p.m. on April 29.
They walked in right behind her when she used keys to open one gate, then another and then a door to the building's lobby.
She acted out the attack for CBS2's Carlin, saying in Spanish, "He threw the bag under his arm and leaves."
The victim was born in Colombia, but spent decades living in the Bronx and supporting her family as a social worker and then later as a manager of a house-cleaning service.
Her confidence shaken, she said she wants out ... a new home away from a borough where she was battered.
Anyone with information in regards to this incident is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74682). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime stoppers website at WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM or by texting their tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577.
