What to Know
- An 87-year-old Jersey City woman was viciously beaten and robbed while walking home from church Saturday
- Left with a bloody eye, she prayed the whole rest of the way home, her family said
- Police are still searching for the suspects
An 87-year-old woman returning home from church in Jersey City was viciously beaten and robbed Saturday, left disoriented and bloodied with a swollen eye, police said.
Ana Lagundi, a mother of six and grandmother of 10, was attacked by two men on a set of steps near Sycamore and Crossgate roads, less than a block from her home, her family said.
In an emotional interview with News 4 New York Tuesday, Lagundi described how the men covered her mouth and punched her in the face, knocking her to the ground.
"Suddenly they pushed me, they grabbed me," she said. "When they box me the first time, I fell down."
"I'm crying. I tremble, I tremble. I'm crying. Because I don't know where to go."
Lagundi said she had less than $20 in the purse the men snatched from her. Surveillance video captured the suspects running through an alley, and police are still searching for them.
Local
After the attack, Lagundi, with a bloody eye, got to her doorstep. She prayed every step of the walk she would be able to make it back home, saying the entire time, "Jesus, mother Mary, help me, I'm not afraid because you're with me."
"This woman is a fragile, old woman," said Lagundi's daughter. "If they would have just asked, she would have given it."
Lagundi is now healing, though she's afraid to go to church on her own: "I' am afraid. I will not go."
But church or home, her faith remains rock strong and she continues to pray, including, remarkably, for the men who hurt her, she said.
"I only pray they will find them so they will reform," she said.
"I forgive them. Even they did what they did. I thank God I am alive."
