‘You white b***h:’ black women allegedly beat disabled army vet in Kroger parking lot
Thomas McDonald
|
Police are investigating a Mother’s Day assault by on a white disabled army veteran by black women in a Kroger’s parking lot.
“I get out and I say, ‘Do you guys need any help?’ and she said, ‘F*** you, you white b****,’ Pamela Ahlstedt-Brown said about how the incident began. ‘Hold on, you don’t even know me, I said, ‘That’s fine. If you don’t need anything, that’s fine. I’ll get back in the car.’”
The incident occurred in the parking lot of a Louisville Kentucky Kroger supermarket on Sunday. Brown, a disabled army veteran, said she was attempting to back out of a handicapped parking space when a vehicle, either a Dodge Charger or Challenger, was blocking her in.
The vehicle’s passengers then got out and threw the contents of a cup at Brown before beating her. “I mean, they were beating me, and I was in a fetal position, covering my face, making sure they didn’t get my eyes,” she said.
According to Brown, the attackers were stopped by total strangers and fled the scene before police arrived. The attack left Brown with a broken nose and other minor injuries. It is unconfirmed how many women attacked Brown.
Brown’s husband, Edward, said it was terrible for his children to see their mother come home on Mother’s Day in that condition. “It’s hard for us because we all feel like, we’ll what if we would have been there? It makes you feel helpless,” he added.
Attempts to retrieve video surveillance of the incident from Kroger were unsuccessful according to Brown who went back to the scene of the attack later that day to speak with police.
Brown says she suffers from anxiety and has nightmares since the attack occurred, though she is grateful to be alive. Brown and her husband believe race may have played a role in the attack which they say is “heartbreaking” since Edward is black and their children are biracial.
“I could have been killed, but I know how to protect myself,” she said. “I mean, I’m a strong person… It doesn’t mean everybody is this strong.”
“We’re gonna collect all the evidence, present it in court and they will decide,” a spokesman for the Lousiville Metropolitan Police Department said in reference to possible hate crime charges for the attackers. “A hate crime is an enhancement, in this case, it’s an assault is where we are at at this time. The courts will eventually decide that.”