'Smiled And Started Hitting Me': Woman Recalls Being Brutally Beaten, Robbed By 3 Women In South Philadelphia
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A victim of a brutal beating and robbery is speaking out after she was kicked and dragged outside of a South Philadelphia subway station. As the search continues for the three female assailants, the victim says the attack changed how she lives her life.
It's an experience so many people deal with living in South Philly -- having trouble finding a parking spot.
"I parked my car far away from my apartment," Anna Mai said.
For Mai, that common experience turned into something dangerously different.
"They walked behind me and very close to me and I felt something weird. And then they pushed me," she said.
It was the beginning of a violent, minute-long attack around 9 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 16. The entire ordeal was captured on camera.
"I just said to them, 'Why are you guys doing that?' And they looked at me and smiled and started hitting me," Mai said.
The suspects appear to be three young women. They were seen dragging, punching and beating Mai and eventually snatching her purse.
"They kicked me in my face," she said.
Philadelphia Police Staff Inspector Sekou Kinebrew is worried the three suspects could do it all again.
"A minute to be attacked is a long time. That just shows that they were going to keep at it until they got it," Kinebrew said.
What they got, Mai says, is about $200 in cash, her purse, car keys and credit cards. The suspects also stole her sense of safety.
"Right now, I'm scared. I don't want this to happen to me again," Mai said.
While police hope the newly-released video leads to the suspects' arrests, Mai's daughter, who answered the door to her bloodied and battered mom that night, has a message for the young female suspects.
"I know what it feels like to live in the middle to low class. I know what it feels like. I just want to tell them, you don't have to commit crime in order to survive," Giahan Tang said. "I would like to use this opportunity to encourage the girls and the youth of Philadelphia to take the long road instead and educate themselves in any way possible in order to rise above and heal. I would like for them to know that I don't hold anything against them. Whatever was their reason, I hope they choose to do better next time."
If you recognize the suspects, you are asked to call police.
