Two female teenagers attacked a former Minneapolis mayoral candidate and stole his iPhone while he was sitting in a Starbucks on Thursday, police said.
Mark Andrew, who was defeated by Betsy Hodges in Minneapolis' November election, was at a Starbucks in the Mall of America when the teenagers struck him on the head with a metal baton after a young male grabbed his iPhone, the Star Tribune reported.
Andrew was taken to Fairview Southdale Hospital after the attack occurred around 7 p.m. Blood was gushing from Andrew's head and he had multiple bruises on is face. He received nine stitches, police told the Star Tribune.
"I was targeted because the phone was out and I'm 63 years old, and I'm sure they thought that I was easy pickins," Andrew told the Star Tribune Friday.
The incident began when the young man snatched and ran off with Andrew's phone. Andrew ran after him, only to be confronted by two female teenagers. One of them, 18-year-old Letaija Shapree Cutler-Cain, jumped on Andrew's back as the other struck him multiple times with a metal baton, the police report said.
Cutler-Cain shouted, "I'm going to kill you, let me go or I'm going to kill you!" as she clawed at Andrew's face with her fingernails, the Star Tribune reported.
The other female teenager has not been named because she is 17-years-old. The male has also not been identified. Cutler-Cain, from Brooklyn Park, was arrested and charged with second-degree assault with a deadly weapon, the Star Tribune reported.
Cutler-Cain told the police that she and the others had watched the Starbucks for a while to see it was "sweet," meaning if there were customers with belongings they could take, the Star Tribune reported.
"I'm not going to let someone take my phone," Andrew told the Star Tribune, "I'm not going to let that pass. They thought they wouldn't get chased."