LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- An 80 year old woman was attacked in the parking lot of a local mall in broad daylight. It happened Monday afternoon at Jefferson Mall. Two witnesses saw the attack and took action. And now the suspect is locked up at Metro Corrections.
"To see it happen to an 80-year-old woman, it was shocking and then my shock turned to anger," says Anthony Clark.
Local youth pastor Anthony Clark says that anger motivated him to take action when he saw an 80-year-old woman being attacked. "She was laying on the ground and he actually took off running and I took off running after him," says Clark. "She was hurt pretty bad...she had a knot on her head the size of a golf ball...bleeding from it...she had a gash on her arm which was pretty bad."
Clark and his fiancee helped the elderly woman get her purse back and eventually led police to the suspect. "He knew that it was pretty much over when he saw us because he dropped his head."
"And we found him walking down the street...all totaled he was about 2 or 3 blocks from Jefferson Mall where we found him," says Major Mark Fox.
The suspect is 24-year-old Matthew Daniels. He made his first court appearance Tuesday morning and received a stern message from the judge. "I am going to leave your bond at $50 thousand... you're to have no contact whatsoever with this 80 year old victim...do you understand me?"
Police had Daniels in custody a short time after the attack and credit Clark and other witnesses who were not afraid to get involved. "Law enforcement is a team effort and the team is the police and every member of this community and I have to say in this instance and many others they really stepped up," says Major Fox.
"I couldn't just sit and watch as this guy ran off with this woman's purse," says Clark.
The Indiana Department of Corrections website says Daniels was just released from prison last week after serving six years in prison for sexual misconduct with a minor.
The 80 year old woman was taken to the hospital and eventually released.
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Matthew R. Daniels (Source: Louisville Metro Corrections)
