90-year-old blind woman battered and robbed

GARY, IN -- Gary police are asking for the public's help identifying the man who robbed and beat up a 90-year-old woman on Aug. 20, then left her for dead.

Beatrice Patterson is legally blind. She said she was sitting in the front room of her home in a chair when a man burst through the door and tried to rob her. She said the man grabbed her by the neck and repeatedly demanded, "Where's the money? Where's the money?"

"Snatched me off the chair there, that's what he did. He snatched me off the chair, all the way down the steps," Patterson said.

When she told him she had none, she said the man dragged her out the door and down her front steps. She said she continued to fight back, yelling, "Don't kill me!" She said he was dragging her down the street when one of her neighbors intervened.

"He had the brick drawn back, I guess he was sitting to pop me in the head with the brick when I thought it was one of my neighbors who said, 'Drop the brick,'" she said.

Police said the robbery and battery occurred around 9:30 a.m. on Aug. 20, but the community alert was not issued until Monday, nine days later. Police described the suspect as a black man in his early 20s, around 6 feet tall with an average building, last seen wearing a light blue shirt and basketball pants.

"A dog carries their puppies better than they dragged my grandmother out there like that," said Andrea Neal, Patterson's grandson.

"This person just don't have no morals, no feelings," said her daughter Josie Martin.

"That's a low down dirty person, because I don't bother nobody," Patterson said.

Patterson is doing remarkably well as she recovers; she said on that morning God was protecting her. While she still has considerable swelling and a lot of fear, she is recovering. The emotional recovery is harder than the physical.

"If I can't-If I can't do you some good, I ain't going to hurt you. I wouldn't hurt you for nothing in the world but they hurt me, they hurt me. They hurt my heart," she said.

Patterson said she still wants to know who it was who chased off her attacker.