Ally_Kat
07-19-2004, 03:16 PM
A New York Horror: Nun Mugged For $60
By Wil Cruz & Rocco Parascandola - Newsday
July 17, 2004, -- A nun in full religious garb was mugged as she walked to the subway in East New York Saturday morning, and the attacker even stole her rosary beads, the victim and police said.
"It's a very painful situation for me," a still-shaken Sister Ngozi Ohaeri, 41, said at her convent late Saturday. "Why in the world would someone want to do that to me?"
Ohaeri, dressed in a white habit with a cross around her neck and her rosary beads in her hands, was saying her morning prayers as she walked on Shepherd Avenue just past 5:15 a.m. She said she didn't realize she was being followed as she trekked the quarter-mile from St. Rita's Catholic Church to the Shepherd Avenue subway station.
Less than a block into what typically is a desolate walk, she passed the Liberty Bodega. She said she spotted a blue car and sensed that the man inside the car was focusing on her. She kept walking.
A block later, at Shepherd and Glenmore avenues, the suspect jumped out of the car and rushed her, she said, forcing her to the ground as she screamed at him.
"I pray to God," she remembered saying to him. "I was screaming to him, 'In Jesus' name, leave me alone!' I was screaming at him. He just didn't leave me alone."
Ohaeri said the attacker appeared to be Latino and in his 20s.
When she hit the ground, her pocketbook, containing $60, apparently fell from her grasp and the suspect, who said nothing during the brief ordeal, grabbed it. He also took her rosary beads as he fled, driving off in his car.
Ohaeri — who Saturday evening was on her way to Woodhull Medical and Mental Health Center, where she prepares meals for patients — was treated at Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center for cuts and bruises on her left elbow. Doctors also tended to her high blood pressure.
She spent the better part of the day at the 75th Precinct, where detectives interviewed her.
Ohaeri, a member of the Igbu tribe in Nigeria, left her homeland in 1992 and came to the United States. She has served at parishes in Florida and in Manhattan and was transferred in 2001 to St. Rita's, where three other nuns serve with her.
The other nuns, who said they never have had a problem in East New York, said they were stunned by what happened to Ohaeri. Sister Mary Alice Kabis, who has lived in the convent for 32 years, said, "It's an unfortunate incident, but it's probably a sign of the times." Another nun, Sister Maryelma Reissner, 89, said her 24 years in East New York have been trouble-free.
"I'm surprised because they usually leave nuns alone," she said.
By Wil Cruz & Rocco Parascandola - Newsday
July 17, 2004, -- A nun in full religious garb was mugged as she walked to the subway in East New York Saturday morning, and the attacker even stole her rosary beads, the victim and police said.
"It's a very painful situation for me," a still-shaken Sister Ngozi Ohaeri, 41, said at her convent late Saturday. "Why in the world would someone want to do that to me?"
Ohaeri, dressed in a white habit with a cross around her neck and her rosary beads in her hands, was saying her morning prayers as she walked on Shepherd Avenue just past 5:15 a.m. She said she didn't realize she was being followed as she trekked the quarter-mile from St. Rita's Catholic Church to the Shepherd Avenue subway station.
Less than a block into what typically is a desolate walk, she passed the Liberty Bodega. She said she spotted a blue car and sensed that the man inside the car was focusing on her. She kept walking.
A block later, at Shepherd and Glenmore avenues, the suspect jumped out of the car and rushed her, she said, forcing her to the ground as she screamed at him.
"I pray to God," she remembered saying to him. "I was screaming to him, 'In Jesus' name, leave me alone!' I was screaming at him. He just didn't leave me alone."
Ohaeri said the attacker appeared to be Latino and in his 20s.
When she hit the ground, her pocketbook, containing $60, apparently fell from her grasp and the suspect, who said nothing during the brief ordeal, grabbed it. He also took her rosary beads as he fled, driving off in his car.
Ohaeri — who Saturday evening was on her way to Woodhull Medical and Mental Health Center, where she prepares meals for patients — was treated at Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center for cuts and bruises on her left elbow. Doctors also tended to her high blood pressure.
She spent the better part of the day at the 75th Precinct, where detectives interviewed her.
Ohaeri, a member of the Igbu tribe in Nigeria, left her homeland in 1992 and came to the United States. She has served at parishes in Florida and in Manhattan and was transferred in 2001 to St. Rita's, where three other nuns serve with her.
The other nuns, who said they never have had a problem in East New York, said they were stunned by what happened to Ohaeri. Sister Mary Alice Kabis, who has lived in the convent for 32 years, said, "It's an unfortunate incident, but it's probably a sign of the times." Another nun, Sister Maryelma Reissner, 89, said her 24 years in East New York have been trouble-free.
"I'm surprised because they usually leave nuns alone," she said.