WYANDOTTE, Mich. (WXYZ) — "I thought he was going to kill me," said a woman who was tackled at a gas station in Wyandotte Sunday night.
Tracy, whose last name is being withheld, was about to go into the Sunoco on Ford Avenue near 18th Street, where she's been countless times before, when a man who had been sitting in a nearby SUV rushed her and took her to the ground.
Tracy was stunned but fought back against the man who was after the wallet she was clutching tightly under her arm.
"I just started hitting with the other arm and kicking and then I started screaming," she said. "My adrenaline was going full drive. He wasn't going to get away with this.
"He wasn't getting my wallet. That's my Michael Kors wallet and he wasn't getting it," Tracy laughed, though she admits the ordeal has left her nervous when getting out of her vehicle.
Tracy describes the attacker as a white man in his 50s with salt and pepper hair and a thin build.
And on surveillance video, he's seen running away when a store worker and a man who had been in the same vehicle with him came running outside.
Wyandotte Police are hoping someone will recognize the second man from surveillance images that show him wearing a blue sweatshirt with some sort of logo. And he arrived at the gas station in the same vehicle as the assailant, but he was in the gas station when the would-be robber got out of the vehicle, tackled Tracy, and tried to rob her.
And that second man didn't stick around to talk to police. He tried to get back into the vehicle but it was locked.
On surveillance video, he can be seen climbing in through a busted rear window and driving off.
"As of right now, I'm looking at him as he's a suspect, but that's why we need to speak to him," said Wyandotte Deputy Police Chief Archie Hamilton. "We have to determine, is he a suspect or is he a witness? That's what we need to find out."
Hamilton praises Tracy for being able to fight back when she was attacked.
"A lot of people say no, just give them what they want, and that's fine if he was sticking a gun in her face, but he attacked her. Once somebody physically attacks you, you must fight," Hamilton said.
"I know most of us don't want to hurt somebody, but in this case, you have to get ugly. You have to fight back," he said. "If you have an object with you, whatever you can use to strike the perpetrator, do it.
Anyone with information on the crime is urged to contact Wyandotte police immediately.
