{"id":251909,"date":"2026-06-02T06:06:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T06:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/251909\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T06:06:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T06:06:12","slug":"woman-83-slashed-in-neck-after-saying-hello-to-homeless-man-on-her-way-to-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/251909\/","title":{"rendered":"Woman, 83, slashed in neck after saying &#8220;hello&#8221; to homeless man on her way to church"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>An 83-year-old woman was slashed in the neck on her way to church after politely greeting a homeless man, who attacked her without warning outside her Brooklyn home, the victim told the Daily News on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>Betty Ellerbe was waiting for an Uber on Sunday when her attacker rounded the the corner of her Brownsville apartment building located near Glenmore and Christopher Aves. around 11:25 a.m.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s always out there walking around and talking to himself,\u201d Ellerbe told The News in an exclusive interview from her bedside at Brookdale Hospital. \u201cHe came around the corner and I said, \u2018Hello.&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In response, Ellerbe\u2019s attacker simply stared at her. It was then that she noticed what he was holding in his hands.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyautosizes lazyload\" alt=\"Victim Betty Ellerbe, 83, was hit in head with stick and stabbed in neck waiting for cab to church outside her building in Brownsville, Brooklyn on May 31, 2026. (Kerry Burke\/New York Daily News)\" width=\"3000\" height=\"564\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/IMG_4416.jpeg\" data-attachment-id=\"9093057\" \/>Victim Betty Ellerbe, 83, was hit in head with stick and stabbed in neck waiting for cab to church outside her building in Brownsville, Brooklyn on May 31, 2026. (Kerry Burke\/New York Daily News<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI looked at him and he looked at me,\u201d said Ellerbe. \u201cHe showed a stick to me \u2014 and then the knife.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The man then raised up the stick and struck the church-going victim in the head before slashing her neck. Ellerbe said she only realized she\u2019d been cut when she saw the blood staining her Sunday best.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was on my way to church and I had white on,\u201d said Ellerbe, who was heading to Messiah Baptist Church when she was attacked. \u201cHe cut me and I have no idea why.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A bystander called 911 after Ellerbe cried out for help. Medics rushed her to <a href=\"https:\/\/onebrooklynhealth.org\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Brookdale Medical Center<\/a>, where she was recovering Monday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI saw the blood and I told them to call the police,\u201d Ellerbe said. \u201cI have no idea how many stitches I have.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ellerbe\u2019s attacker fled on foot, but police swiftly arrested 36-year-old Shawnee Moore around 1 p.m. Sunday. He is charged with assault, weapons possession and endangering the welfare of an elderly person for the unprovoked attack, cops said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI do remember seeing him before. I\u2019d see him hanging around there,\u201d said the victim. \u201cHe was always a little off.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ellerbe, a mother and homemaker, was widowed following the death of her husband in 2009 and has three children, all living out of state.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m afraid to go out now,\u201d she said. \u201cYou never know what\u2019s going to happen to you. You never know who you\u2019re going to meet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She said she\u2019ll think twice about whom she\u2019ll greet in the future.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s really something else,\u201d said Ellerbe. \u201cI always speak to people, but now I don\u2019t know. If I see somebody act funny, I\u2019m not going to talk to them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An 83-year-old woman was slashed in the neck on her way to church after politely greeting a homeless&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":153154,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,21977,9,24,63,69064],"class_list":["post-251909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-church","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-slashed"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}