A 77-year-old woman who survived a violent attack inside her home is sharing her story and urging others to stay alert.
“If you’d have seen his face, his eyes, it was something out of nowhere,” June Gruebel said.
Gruebel may be bruised, but she said she refuses to let the man who forced his way into her Fort Worth home Monday night “get the best of her.”
“He came through the door. I said, ‘What do you want?’ and he came in, and he took that fist, and he hit me,” Gruebel said, describing the start of what she called a brutal assault.
“He kept me down, and he kicked me in the side, kicked me in the back, and put his foot on my back, and he was just like jumping on me,” she said.
Gruebel said the attacker then began throwing items from her refrigerator and stove, cutting her head, and continued to beat her.
“He took my kitchen chair, and when I was down there, throwing it on my head, both of them. Threw one, then threw the other,” she said.
The man kept ransacking her home, turning over a glass shelf on top of her. Despite the injuries and chaos, Gruebel said she focused on escape.
“I’m looking at this glass all around me. Now, get out of here, get out of here. Kept telling myself, I have to get out,” she said.
She crawled to her front door, where she remembered the device around her neck that allowed her to call the police.
“I got out the door, and I got out there, and I felt the string on me. I had my button on me,” Gruebel said.
When officers with the Fort Worth Police Department arrived, they said 21-year-old Cristian Mendez tried to take one of the officers’ weapons. He was arrested on burglary and attempt to take an officer’s weapon charges.
“You better believe God was here looking after me,” Gruebel said.
She offered one warning to other women living alone: “All I can say, ladies, lock your door. Keep your door locked.”