FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A woman and her 12-year-old son were attacked Tuesday morning while walking in Fort Lauderdale, authorities said.
According to Fort Lauderdale police, the incident was reported at about 7:30 a.m. in the 1000 block of Northwest Fifth Avenue.
Detective Kerri Hagerty said the mother and son were approached from behind by an unknown person who struck both of them with a “blunt object.”
Hagerty said the woman sustained a cut in the back of the head and the boy sustained an abrasion to his face.
Both victims were transported to Broward Health Medical Center to be treated for their injuries.
Local 10 reporter Roy Ramos spoke with the mother after they arrived home from the hospital. She said she was walking her son, who has special needs, to a bus stop to take him to school when he was targeted.
The mother also told Local 10 News that she and her son had only moved into their apartment less than a week ago.
She said a man struck her son with a mallet-type of object and then began striking her with the object after she intervened to protect her son.
“Some guy just comes behind us, out the blue. My son is non-verbal, he’s disabled – that’s sad,” the woman identified only as Chrissy said, adding that her son has autism. “He just comes and tells him something and attacks him, and then I had to intercept and get in front (of him) and then he attacks me.”
Chrissy said the suspect appeared to be carrying a heavy mallet-like object.
“It looked like a mallet, some kind of thing, but it was really heavy because the intensity that he hit me in the head. I still had to stay alive to protect him,” she said.
Chrissy said her son also suffered internal damage to one of his eyes, but is not blind.
She also expressed frustration that witnesses did not stop the suspect.
“They didn’t care. ‘Don’t know, see nothing,’ of course,” she said.
Chrissy also had a message for the attacker.
“You attacked a child and a woman and you had no remorse. You were about to go again if I didn’t stop you,” she said.
Hagerty said the suspect fled the scene prior to officers arriving.
Anyone with information about the suspect’s identity is asked to call the Fort Lauderdale Police Department or Broward Crime Stoppers at 954-493-8477.
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