Mom allegedly attacks 81-year-old woman who called her out for cutting in movie theater line
Kristine Solomon, Contributing Writer
Police are searching for a mom who allegedly grabbed an 81-year-old woman by the hair and dragged her to the ground following a verbal altercation outside a movie theater on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.
The elderly woman, who prefers to go unnamed, told NBC New York that she was waiting outside the AMC 84th Street 6 theater to buy a ticket for the movie Dumbo when a mom and her two children seemed to cut the line. Though the woman didn’t know whether or not the rude move was intentional, she did want to speak up about it.
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“I went like this,” the woman said as she motioned with one finger to demonstrate how she touched one of the children. “Just the gentlest touch. I just went like that to her daughter.” The woman says that’s all it took for the mom to become belligerent.
“Well, she just opened up her mouth,” the woman said. “She became so violent. I was just, like, shocked.”
She said she tried to apologize to the mom, but that only seemed to provoke her further. Eventually, the younger woman resorted to physical violence.
The woman said she felt someone come behind her and grab her by the hair. “I just felt this dragging of my hair, and I felt myself go down and crash,” the woman told NBC New York. She allegedly fell backwards, hitting her head. She was soon taken to the hospital, where she was treated for dizziness, pain and swelling, according to a police report sent to Yahoo Lifestyle.
“They X-rayed the thing and they said, thank goodness, there was no bleeding,” the woman said. Doctors told her she was very lucky she didn’t sustain a concussion.
The mom and her children fled the theater, but police were able to capture her on surveillance video wearing a red shirt, black leggings and red sneakers, with a fanny pack around her waist.
“The individual is described as a female, Hispanic, long dark hair, mid 30′,” according to the police report.
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The NYPD encourages anyone with information on the assault to contact its Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or, for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). Alternatively, you can visit the Crime Stoppers website or text tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577. The NYPD vows to keep all calls and tips confidential.
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Woman Fights 12 Police Officers with Meat Cleaver After Phone Reportedly Dies While Paying for Restaurant Bill
CCTV footage caught the altercation that took place on Saturday, Jan. 3
By
NEED TO KNOW
- A woman in Hong Kong was arrested after attacking a dozen police officers with a meat cleaver
- The altercation allegedly started when her phone died while trying to pay a restaurant bill
- CCTV footage caught the fight, which took place on Saturday, Jan. 3
A viral video captured a customer’s fight after she allegedly couldn’t pay for her meal with her phone.
On Saturday, Jan. 3, a 32-year-old woman attempted to pay for food at a noodle restaurant in Hong Kong but her phone was dead, Newsflare reported.
Despite restaurant employees offering to help the woman charge her phone in the restaurant and “there was nothing overly unusual about her behaviour,” the restaurant owner said, the situation quickly escalated as the customer allegedly took a meat cleaver and pair of scissors from the restaurant. Other diners fled the restaurant and the owner called the police.
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A dozen members of the Hong Kong Police Force were dispatched, each wearing helmets and holding shields and batons, per South China Morning Post.
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Released CCTV footage shows the woman standing in the empty restaurant, which has food, phones and chopsticks strewn across the floor. Half of the group of officers entered the restaurant from the main entrance and the woman immediately charged at them, swinging the cleaver at their shields. The other six officers entered the restaurant from a side entrance and came up behind the woman seemingly in an attempt to disarm her. South China Morning Post reports that officers used pepper spray.
Finally, the officers corral the woman and another clip shows her being taken out of the restaurant in a stretcher. She sustained a minor hand injury and was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment. The incident lasted 15 minutes, per reports.
Outlets report that she was arrested on suspicion of “possessing an offensive weapon, criminal damage, and assaulting police officers.”
PEOPLE reached out to the Hong Kong police but did not immediately hear back.
