A 17-year-old girl is describing a vicious attack that left her with stitches and awaiting surgery, while London police search for two 14-year-old suspects.
“My face is pretty swollen and a bone underneath my eye is broken,” Rebecca Taylor told 980 CFPL, “so I need surgery to get it fixed next Wednesday.”
The incident occurred just before 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday evening at White Oaks Mall at the Ardene store.
“We were walking, me and my friend, and we wanted to enter a store and my friend is not exactly one that would want to necessarily be on camera, and she saw this girl was recording so she said, ‘Hey, can you stop recording?’” Taylor began.
She said the suspect shrugged it off, her friend asked her to delete the recording, and then when they entered the store, the suspects followed them. She said that when they were at the cash register, the girls were yelling at them from across the store, then came up to the cash and began throwing items at them.
Cellphone video shown to 980 CFPL shows a girl in a winter jacket walk towards Taylor’s friend and grab her from behind. The two end up on the floor and a girl in a purple shirt runs towards them before moving towards the person filming.
At that point, the camera shakes around before returning to the scene where there are now two fights. Screaming can be heard and in the foreground is Taylor, on the floor, while a girl in purple repeatedly hits her in the head, gets up, kicks her in the head, and walks away.
“No one called for any help. Not when they were yelling at us across the room, not when they were calling my friend ‘fat,’ not when they were throwing stuff at the register, and not when I was on the ground bleeding.”
Taylor told 980 CFPL that her friend called Taylor’s mother, who contacted mall security. She said the security office had to ask where the situation was because they were not aware of it but that once security arrived, they called her an ambulance.
“Now, I’m in the position of finding out everything that’s wrong with my face.”
WARNING: Images contain graphic content.
London police sent out a release Thursday afternoon, reporting that the service was seeking two 14-year-old girls in connection with an assault. Police said warrants have been issued for the suspects, who have been identified but have yet to be located.
One of the girls has been charged with assault causing bodily harm and the other with assault, and assault with a weapon. Neither will be publically named in order to comply with the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
“I’m hoping that they do catch these girls and hold them accountable because what they did wasn’t right. And the fact that their families are defending them without looking at what they did, and how wrong it is. That’s disgusting.”
London police ask anyone with information to contact them at 519-661-5670 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).