Reward Offered For Clues In Attack On 95-Year-Old Woman
"We're just all so sickened about the whole doggone thing," said Johnnie Gore, a worker at Howard's where the victim made weekly donations of old newspapers, which she first unfolded into sheets to wrap fish in. "She was a grand old lady. Thank God she's still kicking."
The bounty of wanted pictures has much to do with shopkeeper disgust at the nearby attack of someone many of them knew.
The victim was assaulted in her home several blocks away near Fourth and Nun streets - near the city's historic core - after she went to get her morning newspaper.
The prevalence of the pictures also has much to do with the vigilance of the Residents of Old Wilmington, a downtown neighborhood association that is rallying to help one of its own - printing hundreds of wanted movie posters, tending to the woman's needs and, on Friday, announcing a $1,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.
"I know there are people out there who know who this man is," said Kevin O'Grady, president of ROW.
"This man does not deserve your silence. He beat a 95-year-old woman. He deserves justice."
O'Grady was joined at the announcement by Wilmington Police Chief Ralph Evangelous, who said the department was making the case a top priority.
Evangelous was practically certain the man was a repeat offender with serious violence issues, he said.
"If he'd do this to some little old lady, what would he do to someone else?" he said.
Investigators have asked for an expedited lab review of potential DNA evidence, but Evangelous said the most tangible evidence remains the composite picture.
He praised ROW for keeping the sketch in the public mind with the reward and the wanted posters.
O'Grady said ROW is helping the woman get to her doctors' appointments. But he said the woman was no one's idea of a helpless victim, saying she had declined offers of food and other assistance.
"She's fiercely independent," said O'Grady, calling the woman a longtime ROW member.
Cindy Everett Meyers, the owner of Dock Street Printing Co., donated hundreds of copies of the wanted posters to ROW, saying an attack on an old person was as disturbing as a violation of a child.
At Graham's Barber Shop, the man's picture is posted on the door and inside on the mirrors. Speaking as he cut hair Friday afternoon, Tye McQuillan said the attack has been a topic of conversation among customers all week.
"They hope he gets everything he deserves," McQuillan said.
Some people were cautious, however, about casting the net too widely. Dock worker Donald Berry, who was hanging out at Graham's, said he is sickened by the crime, but concerned that authorities catch the right person.
Police have identified the man as an African-American, though Berry, who is black, said the artist's picture shows a light-skinned man whose race is unclear.
"We hope they catch him," he said "We hope they get the right person."
April 18, 2008
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