It all started over the man’s shopping cart, said Wisconsin mother Cori Richardson.
Richardson said this man attacked her by pulling out some of her hair, knocking her to the ground, shoving her cart (which held her infant son), throwing her car keys and bumping a witness with his car during the getaway. John Engebos, 60, has been identified as the suspect.
Richardson told WISN 12 that’s her on surveillance footage from Friday in a Walmart parking lot in New Berlin, Wisconsin. Here’s how she described it.
“So I was just leaving Walmart, and as I was leaving, I noticed a man was putting a cart behind my car,” she said. “And I yelled to him, ‘Can you please put your cart away?’ And he said, ‘No, there’s people that they pay to do that.’ So I was ‘Well, don’t leave it behind my car please.’ And he literally just came charging right at me, full force.”
Richardson said she stepped away from her cart because her 8-week-old son was in the carrier and then raised her hands to defend herself. The assailant threw her to the ground, kicking and punching her, she said. When Richardson was able to stand up, she realized the man had her keys. She tried to take those back, but claimed that he yelled, “These are my keys!”
She said he threw down the keys in the parking lot after she insisted. Richardson said Engebos attacked her again, throwing her to the ground by her hair and dragging her.
“By that point, there were witnesses that were running up,” she said. The man was in his car. One of the bystanders tried to block him in to stop him from leaving, but he hit her with the vehicle, Richardson said. “And then eventually, we just let him go because it wasn’t worth him trying to run anybody over.”
Richardson said she sustained some scrapes, and has a bald spot on the back of her head where the man pulled out a “huge handful” of hair.
Her 9-year-old daughter was reportedly with her.
Waukesha County Court records obtained by Law&Crimeshow that Engebos was charged Monday with second-degree recklessly endangering safety, battery, and disorderly conduct. He posted 1,000 bond on Tuesday. Notes indicate that he plans on seeking an attorney. Another hearing is scheduled to take place Aug. 7.
[Screengrab via WISN]