The 73-year-old grandmother was killed in a brutal carjacking Monday in New Orleans when a group of attacking teenagers dragged her down the street for almost a block while a woman yelled at them to let her go.
Witnesses also described a horrific scene after her arm and clothes were torn off during the incident when they got stuck in the car’s seat belt.
Linda Freakie, 73, was dragged down New Orleans’ North Scott Street after four teenage car thieves stole her car and caught her grandmother near her car with her hand in her seat belt around 1:30 p.m. Monday.
Neighbors ran outside, shouting for the attackers to stop, while the elderly woman begged the attackers to let her go.
“The woman tried to put something in her car, the guy jumped in and kicked her out and she got stuck in the wheel arch,” a witness told WWL-TV. “I heard screaming, like, ‘You’re about to die, screaming.’
Linda Freakie, 73, was dragged nearly a block down North Scott Street after four “teenagers” stole her car and locked her outside of the vehicle with her hand in her seat belt around 1:30 p.m. Monday in Mid City, New Orleans .
She was stuck on her arm outside her gray SUV (pictured) after four teenagers stole her arm and dragged her down the street, tearing her arm off in the process.
Four suspects, aged between 15 and 17, were arrested by police and charged with murder. Police confirmed that all four suspects had been arrested earlier.
“He pulled the woman out of the car by the seat belt. The door was locked on the seatbelt and she got stuck in it… I got out of the car yelling, ‘Please stop,’ the other neighbors were yelling too,” another witness, Todd Ecker, told Fox 8.
Local residents said the teenagers momentarily stopped the car to open the door and kick her out, but were unable to verify that she got out of the car safely.
A neighbor in the area, Lynn Muscar, said she ran inside to get a sheet to cover Freaky after she ran to help an elderly woman when she was left outside.
“As soon as I saw her, I screamed. I just started running after her, I was wondering if I could somehow, I don’t know what I could do, but I thought if I could knock her out of this car… when I looked down, her body was already there, and her hand was. “That’s something you just don’t expect to see,” Mascar tried to tell Fox 8.
Freakie, a grandmother, was leaving the local business when the teenagers attacked her and she was reportedly yelling at them to let her go.
The names of the teenagers who attacked the 73-year-old man (pictured) have not been released by police.
“She was lying there naked and I thought the humiliation she had just endured was too much,” Mascar told Fox 8.
Mascara’s husband, Mark, sat next to Fricky as she “disappeared” and “prayed” for an ambulance to arrive soon.
“I wasn’t, I was angry, I told her to stay there because every time I heard a siren I hoped and prayed it was an ambulance. I kept telling her to hang in there, to breathe, her eyes moving. I’ve never seen anything so terrifying,” he told Fox 8.
A gray SUV was found 13 blocks from where Freaky was left on the street, and police released CCTV footage showing the four suspects walking and being described as “teenagers” by neighbors.
The NOPD announced Tuesday morning that all four suspects have been arrested and charged with murder. The NOPD announced that the suspects were a 17-year-old man, a 16-year-old woman and a 15-year-old woman – all of whom had previously been arrested.
Locals are outraged that District Attorney Jason Williams is “not doing his job.”
“God knows these kids are probably going through these justice systems over and over again,” Ecker said.
Mascar said she was “furious” because she felt “helpless in the face of someone’s pain”.
New Orleans residents said they were “buying guns” after the violent incident, adding that there was a feeling that “fear” was increasingly ruling the city due to rising crime.
The locals also urged the district attorney to do something, saying “we shouldn’t take this as the norm.”
Local residents Todd Ecker (left) and Lynn Muscar (right) saw Freaks being dragged down the street screaming. Mascara said she ran to her house to grab a sheet to cover the elderly woman, who was left lying naked in the street. Acker criticized the New Orleans District Attorney, saying he needed to “do his job”.
NOPD superintendent Sean Ferguson acknowledged that public outcry about violent crime is not the norm and thanked the public for helping to find the four suspects at a press conference.
NOPD Superintendent Sean Ferguson confirmed the call during a press conference on Tuesday. He said: “I called on the community to play an active role in identifying those responsible for this horrific incident, and the community has done just that.
“Many of you have decided not to allow this to become the norm because I asked you not to. You decided to come up and say what you saw or what you knew.
Freaky’s family is also mourning the loss of a loved one, with her sister Jeanneelyn Griffin writing on Facebook: “This senseless act has affected our family. We have lost a loving sister, wife, mother, grandmother, aunt and friend. Rest in peace my beautiful sister Linda Freakie, you will always be missed.”
Lisa Serio, who knows the family, also urged Williams to “do your job or resign!” before saying that Freakie was “such a sweet old lady”. I can’t stop thinking about it.”
The Fricky family is not the only one mourning in New Orleans as the city’s crime rate continues to rise. A 13-year-old boy was walking home when he was shot dead in a double homicide. The bartender was fatally shot in the chest while working at a karaoke bar.
There have been 128 auto thefts, 46 aggravated assaults and 226 thefts in New Orleans this year. Theft increased from 166 in the same period last year, while car theft and assault were down slightly from 140 and 53, respectively.