Churchgoer slashed outside Brownsville home after greeting her attacker
BROWNSVILLE, Brooklyn (WABC) -- An 83-year-old woman says a simple greeting led to a violent attack outside her Brownsville apartment building Sunday morning as she waited for an Uber on her way to church.
Betty Ellerbe said she noticed a man loitering near Glenmore and Christopher avenues before he suddenly slashed her in the neck.
"I looked at his hand and saw the big stick and I looked at his face and then in the other hand a big knife," she said.
Ellerbe said she had tried to be friendly.
"He passed by me and I said hello to him," she said.
Moments later, she was bleeding through her white church suit and struggling to understand what had happened.
"I was dazed like shocked. I couldn't say nothing because there's so many people out there you don't know who to trust," she said.
She said the attacker swung at her neck twice.
"He didn't knock me down because I kept standing up and that's good," she said.
Ellerbe was taken to a hospital, where she received stitches. She said she considered asking the man why he attacked her but feared the consequences.
"He would have killed me," she said.
Police arrested 36-year-old Shawnee Moore about an hour and a half after the assault. Officers said Moore, who they described as homeless, faces charges including assault and endangering the welfare of an elderly person.
Ellerbe, who lost her husband and whose sons are grown, said her faith remains her anchor.
"I'm a church person you say hello to people who pass by and whatever - I gotta be strong keep my head up keep the faith," she said.
Despite the attack, she said she will continue to show kindness to others.
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