88-year-old victim of carjacking: ‘I'd kill the SOB'

LIVONIA, Mich. — An elderly Michigan woman left battered and bruised when a man stole her car and purse outside a Walmart store Tuesday did not mince words when asked what she would like to do if she saw the man again.

"I'd kill the son of a (expletive)," Gloria Kevelighan told Fox 2 in Detroit. "The way he pushed me, he didn't care. He was very strong."

Kevelighan said she was attacked outside the Livonia Walmart Tuesday afternoon as she got out of her 2017 Ford Escape, which she'd parked in a handicapped parking space. Livonia police investigators said Kevelighan was approached from behind by a man and a woman.

"He pushed me and I fell flat on my face," Kevelighan told Fox 2. "I hit my head. I was bleeding and everything."

Kevelighan said the assault happened in seconds as the man grabbed at her purse until she let it go.

"I tried to hit him with my cane, but I couldn't. He seemed to want to stay behind me, so I couldn't see his face, you know?" Kevelighan told the news station. "I tried to turn around and sock him with my cane. If anyone bothers me, I use my cane."

Investigators said the man and woman jumped into Kevelighan's car and drove away, nearly running her over in the process. Another customer witnessed the crime and followed the vehicle, but eventually lost sight of it.

Officers later found Kevelighan’s vehicle abandoned nearby.

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Bystanders called 911 and came to Kevelighan's aid, WDIV reported.

"I told them at the hospital, 'I'm a tough broad,'" Kevelighan told the news station.

About seven hours after the carjacking, a police officer spotted the suspects in the area on foot. They were arrested without incident, and Kevelighan's purse, intact except for her cash, was recovered, police officials said.

The names of the suspects, a 38-year-old man from Sterling Heights and a 41-year-old woman from Lincoln Park, were being withheld until their arraignment, officials said.

Kevelighan praised the quick work of the police department, Fox 2 reported.

"I'm a mess but I'm alive, and that's the important thing," Kevelighan said.

Cox Media Group