Two teenage females allegedly severely beat a former candidate for mayor with a billy club when he tried to stop the theft of his Apple iPhone .
Mark Andrew, who finished in second place in the Minneapolis mayor election last month, was sitting at the Starbucks in the Mall of America in suburban Bloomington when a male snatched his iPhone from the table and ran off.
Andrew, 63, gave chase, at which point two two females, ages 18 and 17, reportedly tackled him. One of the teens started beating him with a billy club or nightstick. The mall was packed with shoppers but evidently no one helped him fight off the attack.
According to TwinCities.com , “As [the suspect] allegedly gouged Andrew’s face with her fingernails, he tried to restrain the two and the younger female beat him with the nightstick, similar to the ones police carry. As she struck him repeatedly, she kept yelling: ‘I’m going to kill you! Let me go or I’m going to kill you!’ the criminal complaint contends. Andrew said he believed the 17-year-old meant every word.”
The politician needed nine stitches to close a head gash as a result of the club attack which occurred on Thursday evening. He may have also suffered a concusssion in the beating.
Police arrested two female suspects in the alleged beating. The 18-year-old was charged with two counts of aiding an abetting aggrivated robbery and one count of aiding and abetting second-degree assault. She was booked into the Hennepin County Jail on $100,000 bail and is due in court tomorrow. The 17-year-old reportedly faces the same charges.
The male suspect is still at large, but he dropped the iPhone in the chase, which is now back in Mark Andrew’s possession. Police believe they will be able to indentify the alleged thief with mall security video.
Commenting on the iPhone mugging at the Mall of America Starbucks, former candidate Mark Andrew explained that “If somebody is gonna do that to me or somebody else, I’m not a bystander by nature; I’ll go in and fight.”
[thumbnail image credit: Joe Chill 2 ]
