After her arm was ripped off, a driver was killed in a tragic carjacking. Police said the grandmother died on Monday after getting jumped by four teens in the afternoon in the Mid-City neighborhood of New Orleans. Local news station WWL-TV reported Linda Frickey was doing some shopping in the area.
The outlet continued; after getting stuck in the seatbelt, Frickey’s arm and clothing were ripped off during the jacking as the attackers continued to drive off for nearly an entire city block, dragging the 73-year-old grandmother behind.
“Her arm was severed from her body,” police Superintendent Shaun Ferguson said.
The victim attempted to put something in her car when the assailants jumped in and tried to kick her out, eyewitnesses told WWL-TV.
Todd Eckernc, a witness, told the outlet he saw the woman being dragged down the street, clinging to the car by her seatbelt.
“The door had closed on the seatbelt, and she was stuck in it … I got out of my vehicle screaming, ‘Please stop!’ Other neighbors were also screaming,” Eckernc told Fox 8.
Begging the perpetrators to “let her go,” Frickey screamed to the carjackers for her release, a separate eyewitness to the tragic crime told Fox 8.
“As soon as I saw her, I screamed. I just started running for her – I thought if I could somehow, I don’t know what I could do, but I thought if I could dislodge her from this car … when I looked down her body was already there, and her arm was … It’s just not something you expect to see,” Leanne Mascar told Fox 8.
13 blocks down the road from where the carjacking took place, police were able to recover the vehicle.
On Tuesday, local news outlet NOLA.com reported that the police had apprehended all teenage carjackers. They include a 17-year-old boy, a 16-year-old girl, and two 15-year-old girls.
According to court records that WWL-TV reported, 17-year-old John Honore, a suspect, had a previous arrest for aggravated burglary related to a carjacking he effectuated when he was 15-years-old.
Frickey’s death is the latest in a crime stint that has recently plagued the neighborhood.
A double homicide that killed a 13-year-old boy walking home, and a separate shooting that left a local bartender dead when a stray bullet struck him, was recorded by Mid-City since the month began.
“In six months, we’ve gone from some very positive things in Mid-City to… fear,” Tim Levy, a Greater Mid-City Business Association member, told local news affiliate WWL. “Citizens I talk to, they’re all buying guns.”
