WESTFIELD – City police are seeking two black men who reportedly mugged a 19-year-old woman on Notre Dame Street while she was walking to work very early Thursday morning.
Police received a call at 4:14 a.m. from a State Police dispatcher who reported that a woman had said that she had been “jumped” in the area of the gas station at the top of Clay Hill.
The city dispatcher reports he was unable to reach the woman on her cellphone but he was able to speak with her when he called the Citgo station.
Officer Taylor Derrig arrived at the gas station at 4:18 a.m. and the woman said that she had been robbed while she was walking from her home on Montgomery Street to the gas station where she works.
The victim told Derrig that she had been on Crown Street when she first saw a silver colored sedan drive past her and it passed her again when she reached Notre Dame Street. The victim said she was not concerned when the vehicle parked nearby on Carpenter Street. However, she said moments later she heard someone running behind her and turned to see two men who had exited the car rushing toward her.
The victim said that one of the men had his hand in the pocket of his red, black and green hoodie and she thought he was holding a weapon. She said she was told to empty her pockets and she complied, turning her pants pockets inside out to show there was nothing in them.
The woman said that one of the men continued to hold his hand out so she gave him her backpack which contained her work uniform and personal items.
Then, she said, the other man reached into an upper pocket and took her cellphone, groping her breast while he did so.
The two men then fled, Derrig was told. The victim said that none of the nearby businesses were open and so she went to her workplace to call police.
The victim described one of her assailants as a tall thin black man whose face was mostly obscured by the hood he was wearing while his companion was shorter, heavier, and wore all black clothing.
Their description, and the description of the silver sedan they were driving, was sent to nearby police departments.
A search of the area did not reveal the suspects or their vehicle but Officer Matthew Preuss found the woman’s backpack on Montgomery Road in the area of the animal hospital. The contents of the backpack had been strewn across the roadway and driven over by passing vehicles.
In a possibly related incident, several vehicles were reported to have been broken into in the neighborhood the next day at about the same time and, in one case, the description of the suspects fit the description of the woman’s two assailants.
A caller on Cranston Street reported at 4:18 a.m. Friday morning that she had seen a man in her driveway rummaging through one of the family cars parked there. The caller said that the man, and another man standing nearby, fled when she yelled at them. She described them as a tall thin black and and a shorter and heavier black man.
The responding officer reports that although the contents of the vehicle had been disturbed nothing was reported to have been stolen. Two vehicles were also reported to have been entered on Cranston Street on the same night but no suspects were found in that incident.
