A grandma summoned her significant wits and strength to combat a set of aggressors who attacked her late last month inside a charming wine shop in East Davenport, Iowa, where she works. Even after being and withstanding an extreme whipping threatened with rape and death, 4 words steeled willpower in the brave female’s mind: “I’m not dying today.”
The grandma– who’s name isn’t utilized in the Sioux City Journal’s story about the traumatic experience– was alone at work in Wide River Winery in East Davenport on April 28.
Liz Quinn, the clothing’s chief of operations, informed the paper a male and female strolled into the search at 5 p.m. and allegedly gave the street-smart granny the creeps.
In a different event, a stone was tossed through among the winery’s doors, and the duo stated they knew who did it, the paper stated.
“She thanked them and told them they could leave,” Quinn recalled to the paper. “They told her several times not to call the cops. As soon as they left, she called another co-worker and said, ‘I got a really bad feeling from them.'”
The granny was securing the store when the man and lady returned 10 minutes later on, the paper stated.
Quinn said to the paper that the man stated, “I told you not to call the [expletive] cops.” Quinn then said “he hit her in the head with his fist. She said she screamed louder than she’s ever screamed. She was screaming, and the village [of East Davenport] heard her.”
A merchant driving by with his window down heard the screams, as did an approaching client, the Journal reported, including that they both called 911.
‘He told her he could rape her or kill her’
“The guy … started beating her head on the floor, saying he wanted the money and the surveillance video,” Quinn told the paper. “She told him to take the money … and go, but he wanted that video. He told her he could rape her or kill her because he had a knife.”
At this point, the grandma exercised her exceptional presence of mind and shrewdness.
She could not combat both of them, so the granny hatched a strategy to separate them in the hopes she’d be left alone with the lady so that she could subdue her, the paper stated. She informed her attackers the video was in the basement– however the male told the lady to look for it, and he continued beating the grandma, the Journal stated.
“He was trying to choke her, and she remembered saying to herself, ‘Not today. I’m not dying today,” Quinn recounted to the paper.
The lady returned without the video, so the grandma summoned her wits again and informed the pair she had actually forgotten and recommended that the man ought to look upstairs for the video, the paper stated.
He did.
“When he went upstairs, she saw her chance,” Quinn told the Journal, though it would come with big risks. “He had told the girl, if she moved, she should stab her.”
Grandma flips the script
With that, the granny took a wooden stool at a table near the door and swung it at the lady, Quinn informed the paper.
“With the tasting-room stool, she clocked that girl,” Quinn added to the Journal. “She reached the door and the girl yelled, ‘She’s getting away!’ The guy comes back, and he grabs her by the hair, pulling her back in. She then grabbed one of the aluminum chairs off the deck and hit him with it.”
The paper stated that was when police showed up, which sent the pair fleeing back into the winery, Quinn stated, adding that officers caught the suspects.
It wasn’t precisely easy though, as “police had to use the taser on [the man] three times,” Quinn noted to the Journal.
Who would do this?
Christopher Lavelle Mitchell, 35, and Emilee Rose Haberling, 20, were charged with one count each of first-degree kidnapping, first-degree break-in, disturbance with main acts, and harassment of public officers and staff members, Davenport police said.
The department included that Haberling likewise was charged with first-degree theft and obstructing 911. The Journal stated Mitchell has a substantial rap sheet.
As of Wednesday, both Mitchell and Haberling were in the Scott County Jail on no bond.
‘She’s just so strong’
Cops informed the paper that the granny suffered a fractured eye socket, a damaged collar bone, and clumps of hair pulled from her scalp leaving bald spots, in addition to bleeding and bruising.
In spite of the physical, psychological, and psychological injury the victim suffered, Quinn informed the paper the first thing she told her colleagues was that she was glad it was her and not them.
“She’s just so strong,” Quinn added to the Journal. “She has a daughter and grandkids, and she thought it through. She decided she was going to fight. I found one of her earrings under the ice machine. That’s how violent it was.”
‘I don’t think he was planning on leaving a witness’
Casey Maher, a colleague of the victim, went to the winery quickly after the attack and assisted tidy up blood and speak to authorities, the paper stated:
“I just don’t understand the level of cruelty. That guy was waiting for the surveillance video. I don’t think he was planning on leaving a witness. The first time I talked to her, she said she was so grateful it wasn’t one of us. She was afraid if it had been someone smaller or one of us got too scared to fight, we’d be having a funeral. She was glad it wasn’t us. Can you believe that?”
H/T The Blaze
