Aug 22, 2008 12:00 am US/Eastern
Elevator Assault Victim: 'You Should Be Ashamed'
NYPD Says 36-Year-Old Suspect Admitted Choking Out, Robbing 85-Year-Old Lillian France Last Week
Crowd Jeers Sorrowful Suspect At Walk Of Shame
Reporting
Lou Young
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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A mugger runs off with an elderly woman's cane and purse after he choked her out in her Brooklyn apartment building elevator.
CBS
The video shocked the city -- a man choking an 85-year-old woman in a Brooklyn elevator, even stealing her cane.
Now police say they have their man.
They picked him up in Manhattan at his work-release job sweeping streets.
Cornelius Abson, 36, is charged with the elevator assault in Crown Heights and four other similar attacks. He's a suspect in seven more.
Meet this accused one-man crime wave.
He hid his face as best he could on the walk of shame from the precinct to the squad car for the ride to central booking on Thursday night. The crowd cheered his capture and peppered him with scorn.
"Hold your head up, you scum!" one man yelled.
Cops say Abson is the mugger in last week's elevator video: a cowardly choke-from-behind that ended with 85-year-old Lillian France unconscious on the elevator floor as the mugger grabs her handbag and cane.
She was in a wheelchair Thursday night, still hospitalized but able to laugh again when talking about her alleged attacker's arrest. However, her mood darkened when asked if she has a message for the man.
"You should be ashamed of yourself," France said. "The experience wasn't a good one. I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy."
It was the video and the persistent MO of attacking elderly women that did him in. A detective who'd locked him up years ago for a similar crime recognized him, checked the records and realized he'd been let out of prison in May. He'd been staying at a half-way house not far from the scene.
"This case shows that veteran detectives have long memories," NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly said. "This was outstanding work."
Detective Matthew Walker made the ID. Officer Santo Ippolito made the arrest.
The suspect cried when he confessed, and even wrote an apology note to the victim blaming the crime on his drug habit.
France wasn't really buying that.
"How can he be sorry when I was, I understand, the 12th victim?" France said.
Abson said he learned his robbery technique of grabbing elderly targets from behind from his cousins in East Flatbush when he was young.
France said she's feeling a lot better and doctors said she could be out of the hospital by the weekend.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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