She asked him to move his Walmart cart from behind her car. He dragged her by the hair, cops say
A Wisconsin mother of two is recovering from a violent encounter in a Walmart parking lot Friday that left her with bruises, scratches and missing part of her hair, CBS 58 reported.
What started it all? An argument over a shopping cart, she told police. Now 60-year-old John Engebos faces charges, according to the station.
Cory Richardson told police she was leaving a Walmart in New Berlin, Wisc., when Engebos put his cart in a grassy median instead of in a cart corral, which resulted in it blocking her car from leaving, Fox 6 Milwaukee reported.
“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 like, ‘Well, just don’t leave it behind my car, please.’ And he literally just came charging right at me – full force,” Richardson told WISN.
Surveillance video captured some of the incident. In the video, Richardson can be seen walking across the parking lot toward her car. As she approaches, Engebos runs out from the row of cars with his arms out and collides with Richardson.
The two walk back toward the cars and a struggle ensues, which leaves Richardson on the ground. Her cart, which has her infant son in the seat, begins rolling away down the parking lot. Richardson quickly leaps to her feet and runs to get the cart and Engebos gets in his car.
Bystanders stand behind his car, but he manages to back up and drive out of the lot.
“He threw me to the ground, was throwing punches and kicks,” Richardson told WISN. “Then he attacked me again, this time grabbing my hair and threw me to the ground and kind of dragged me.”
Sgt. Dan Hanlon of the New Berlin Police Department told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel Engebos grabbed the woman, threw punches, tossed her keys across the parking lot, and shoved away the shopping cart with the infant sitting in it.
“It all just went so fast,” Richardson told WTMJ. “I was terrified for my own life and for (the children’s).”
Bystanders got the license plate number, and investigators took Engebos into custody at his home, after which he reportedly told them he “took her to the ground” because he was afraid she was going to attack him, Fox 6 reported. He also denied intentionally pushing the shopping cart, saying he may have touched it but did not push it away, according to the station.
Engebos faces charges of disorderly conduct, battery and second degree recklessly endangering safety, CBS 58 reported. He was released from jail on a $1,000 cash bond.
“I’ve teared up quite a few times just thinking about it. I’m just really grateful that my kids are OK,” Richardson told WISN.