Elderly woman beaten by gang with metal pot in Harlem
Thomas McDonald
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Police are searching for four suspects who beat a 61-year-old disabled woman in Harlem, New York, and stole her purse and walker.
The victim, who chooses to remain anonymous, says she recognized one of her attackers.
“I’d seen the woman in the yellow the day before. She was wearing a suit and I told her she looked nice. I don’t believe this,” said the victim, a former file clerk who spoke with local media.
The victim says she stepped outside briefly to get fresh air when the woman in yellow approached her and got in her face, while another woman in a purple tie-dyed shirt stood nearby.
“We were talking, and she just pushed me,” the victim said.
“She punched me in the face. They pulled my wig off and everything. They hit me in the back of the head and I started bleeding,” the victim added.
The woman in yellow grabbed the victim by the throat, pushed her into metal bars nearby, threw her to the pavement, and pummeled her. The woman wearing purple then pulled out a metal pot and hit the victim seven times before she fell to the ground.
A man wearing a white t-shirt is seen standing nearby and appears to also use his feet to assault the victim while she lay on the ground defenseless.
A third woman, wearing an olive green shirt, then stomps on the victim’s head multiple times before the group drags her and rips off her wig. Meanwhile, a fifth individual wearing red shorts and a white t-shirt is seen watching the attack unfold but does nothing to help.
After the attackers stole her bag containing $22 and multiple credit cards, they also stole her walker. She has needed the walker ever since suffering a fall last year where she slipped a disk and broke her ankle. She was left stranded until medics arrived.
“As they put me in the ambulance, [the man in the red shorts] said, ‘You better watch out. You hit my mother. We’re going to get you,’” the victim recalled.
“Everything I need was in my walker. They’ve got my phone, my keys, my wallet. It had my ID, bank card, my Medicaid card. They even got my glasses. Everything I need was in it,” the victim said. “I still have headaches. When I get up, the room starts spinning around,” she added.
“If I see them, I’m gonna just walk past them. Why start anything, it doesn’t make sense,” she said. “But it won’t stop me from dialing 911.”
The attackers are still on the loose and police are asking anyone with tips on this case to call (800) 577-TIPS.