An 83-year-old woman was slashed in the neck on her way to church after politely greeting a homeless man, who attacked her without warning outside her Brooklyn home, the victim told the Daily News on Monday.
Betty Ellerbe was waiting for an Uber on Sunday when her attacker rounded the the corner of her Brownsville apartment building located near Glenmore and Christopher Aves. around 11:25 a.m.
“He’s always out there walking around and talking to himself,” Ellerbe told The News in an exclusive interview from her bedside at Brookdale Hospital. “He came around the corner and I said, ‘Hello.’”
In response, Ellerbe’s attacker simply stared at her. It was then that she noticed what he was holding in his hands.
“I looked at him and he looked at me,” said Ellerbe. “He showed a stick to me — and then the knife.”
The man then raised up the stick and struck the church-going victim in the head before slashing her neck. Ellerbe said she only realized she’d been cut when she saw the blood staining her Sunday best.
“I was on my way to church and I had white on,” said Ellerbe, who was heading to Messiah Baptist Church when she was attacked. “He cut me and I have no idea why.”
A bystander called 911 after Ellerbe cried out for help. Medics rushed her to Brookdale Medical Center, where she was recovering Monday.
“I saw the blood and I told them to call the police,” Ellerbe said. “I have no idea how many stitches I have.”
Ellerbe’s attacker fled on foot, but police swiftly arrested 36-year-old Shawnee Moore around 1 p.m. Sunday. He is charged with assault, weapons possession and endangering the welfare of an elderly person for the unprovoked attack, cops said.
“I do remember seeing him before. I’d see him hanging around there,” said the victim. “He was always a little off.”
Ellerbe, a mother and homemaker, was widowed following the death of her husband in 2009 and has three children, all living out of state.
“I’m afraid to go out now,” she said. “You never know what’s going to happen to you. You never know who you’re going to meet.”
She said she’ll think twice about whom she’ll greet in the future.
“It’s really something else,” said Ellerbe. “I always speak to people, but now I don’t know. If I see somebody act funny, I’m not going to talk to them.”
