AKRON, Ohio — For the third time in a month, an Akron resident has been brutally beaten by a group of kids.
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A 52-year-old woman was punched and kicked repeatedly Saturday night, moments after she got off a METRO bus.
“My face is swollen, the right side — I can barely see out of my eye,” Tracy, the victim, told News 5. “I have a fracture on my nose that I’m supposed to go back and see an ENT (ear, nose and throat) doctor in a week. And I have a concussion."
As the victim continues her long recovery, she's speaking out and hoping for justice.
Police are trying to figure out if the same teens are responsible for other attacks in the city.
“It's tender and sore and throbbing, continual headache,” she said. “Like I said, it feels like the skin is overcoming my eye. My whole face hurts."
It all happened around 9 p.m. shortly after Tracy got off a METRO bus on Arlington Street in Akron.
“This is the bus stop where I got off here,” Tracy told News 5’s Bob Jones as they revisited the scene Monday.
Tracy said about six kids immediately started following her as she walked toward her home, and then one of them threatened her.
"One of the girls said, 'What are you looking at b****?' and I told her I didn't know who she was. And she said, 'Well, if you pull out any mace or call the police, I’m gonna beat your a** b****.'"
Moments later, Tracy was knocked to the ground, where she took a brutal beating as the kids went for her purse.
"That's when they started hitting me from behind and punching me and kicking me, and I fell to my knees unconscious."
Tracy told police her attackers were young boys and girls between the ages of 12 and 15. After the attack, her purse was stolen along with her cell phone.
“I'm wondering where their parents are because that's not how I raised my kids,” Tracy said.
Lt. Michael Miller with Akron Police is outraged by the senseless attack.
“Looking at the severity of the victim's injuries, we’d ask the community, anybody watching this, to imagine that it were somebody that they cared about."
Police are still investigating similar crimes.
Last month, a 61-year-old man was beaten and robbed by kids — his e-bike stolen.
Miller said a 12-year-old was jumped by masked teens in the Firestone Park neighborhood in July. All of the crimes are unsolved.
Detectives trying to figure out if the same group is responsible for the violence.
“We would not be doing our due diligence if we didn't examine that fact,” Miller said.
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