Victim in Oakland laundromat attack upset perpetrators faced minimal repercussions
OAKLAND, Calif. - A 65-year-old woman who was attacked while working at an Oakland laundromat said Monday that she wants accountability.
The woman said she couldn't believe that one of the suspects was only cited and released by police.
"I'm very angry, very scared and the police, the system don't do anything about it," Ruth Wilde told KTVU.
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The incident happened at Woody's Laundromat on Park Boulevard on March 16. Wilde says a woman wearing blue came in at about 7 p.m., after the 6:30 p.m. cutoff time for the last wash.
The woman takes her basket of laundry and leaves in a car with another woman.
The two returned to the laundromat 40 minutes later and began yelling at Wilde, saying they were missing some of their clothes. The women demanded that she check the laundromat's surveillance video, but Wilde doesn't have access to the video. She said she also didn't want to give the women access to the office.
At one point, the woman wearing blue grabs her and pushes her against the machines.
A few minutes later, the woman in yellow makes a punching motion, then hits Wilde, knocking her to the ground.
"They grabbed me, they dragged me around the wash shop, and punched me," she said.
The woman wearing blue then grabs her, drags her and pushes her.
Laundromat owner Robert Ma says Wilde was at their mercy.
"Kind of like a tag team, man, you know, one lady shoved her by the dryer, and then the other one picked her up and threw her across the floor," Ma said.
Wilde called Oakland police. As she waited outside, one of the women punched her again.
"When she went outside to call the police, she was like sucker-punched, you know, with a right hook," Ma said.
Officers arrived but ended up only citing one of the women. There were no physical arrests.
"I want them to go to jail and get help, because you cannot go around doing that and punch somebody in the face and get away with it," Wilde said.
Wilde has worked at the laundromat for 27 years but hasn't gone back since the incident, scared the women will return.
Ma said, "If you could do that to an elderly person, you know, she's 65 and on top of that she's only 88 pounds."
Ma said he doesn't understand why at least one of the women wasn't taken into custody.
"If someone gets assaulted like that, I always thought it's maybe a felony, at least taken in to be questioned, not like detained for questioning and then let go," Ma said.
Henry Lee is a KTVU crime reporter. E-mail Henry at Henry.Lee@fox.com and follow him on Twitter @henrykleeKTVU and www.facebook.com/henrykleefan