A 68-year-old woman who was attacked and robbed as she walked into church over the weekend sustained a skull fracture and remains in critical condition, a family member said on Tuesday.
The suspect, who is still on the loose, followed the woman up the steps of St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church in the Jamaica section of Queens, N.Y., before jumping in front of her and knocking her down. The woman was on her way to mass, which she attends every Sunday, her nephew told Fox News.
Security camera footage of the incident shows the woman falling backwards on three steps before landing on her back. She appears to be writhing in agony as the suspected thief is seen rummaging through her purse and running away. The suspect stole $300 and her cellphone before making off with her car.
“She’s making a recovery. We just visited her in the hospital,” her nephew, Daniel Coffaro Hill, said Tuesday on “The Ingraham Angle.” “She’s able to speak to us a little bit. She still cannot [make] full sentences or anything like that. She suffered a skull fracture… the whole family has come from out of state to see her… They think it’s going to be a long recovery period.”
Hill said his aunt, who was in critical condition, managed to get up and walk to her car after the attack, but realized that her purse and her keys were stolen. The suspect was allegedly watching her from nearby, Hill said, and returned to steal the woman’s 2006 Nissan Altima to make his getaway, according to police.
NYPD’s wanted poster for a man who shoved a 68-year-old woman down a flight of church steps and stole from her. (NYPD)
“She attempted to walk towards her car. When she got to the car, it seems like the suspect was up the block watching her,” Hill said. “And as soon as obviously, she stepped away from the car when she realized she didn’t have her purse and her keys. He then stole the car, and she had walked home where her daughter called 911, and she was taken in an ambulance to the hospital.”
The suspect is described as a man with a “dark complexion,” 18 to 25 years old, 5-foot-8 with a medium build, according to the NYPD. He was last seen wearing a red hooded sweatshirt underneath a black jacket, black pants, black face mask and black Jordans with red trim.
Hill said the family was informed that the NYPD managed to pull a fingerprint off his aunt’s car and that “they have a good idea of who it might be.”
Anyone with information on the incident should call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).
Fox News Digital’s Chris Eberhart contributed to this report.