MIAMI BEACH, FLA. (WSVN) - An expectant mother is speaking out after a man allegedly tried to steal her purse, pushed her on her stomach and dragged her in Miami Beach.
Amy Cordova, who was visiting from Peru for an appointment in South Florida, said she was on 41st Street with her mother when the incident happened, Wednesday morning.
“This guy tried to grab my bag and pulled me to the floor, and I am pregnant,” Cordova said over the phone.
According to the arrest report, 30-year-old Cordova was attacked outside a T-Mobile store where a man “pulled [the victim] forward onto the ground on her stomach and dragged [her] approximately 10 feet on the sidewalk and caused scrapes and abrasions to her knees.”
Cordova said the attacker was after her purse, but she would not give it up.
“My mom screamed,” she recalled. “She yelled at him like, ‘Hey, she’s pregnant!'”
Miami Beach Police said Amara Sanogo is the man accused of roughing up and mugging the expectant mother, who is eight months pregnant.
Sanogo then walked away after committing the alleged crime, but employees of the nearby T-Mobile store rushed to Cordova’s aid, and one of them got her some help.
“He was really, really helpful,” Cordova said about the good Samaritan. “He called 911.”
Police said they spoke to the cellphone store employees and chased down Sanogo just east of where the assault occurred.
After cutting off his path in a cruiser, police said in the arrest report that Sanogo was “directed at gunpoint to lay down on the ground.”
He was then arrested and charged with attempted strong armed robbery and aggravated battery.
Cordova said she is OK and pleased with those who helped, especially the quick-responding police.
“Really, really nice policemen,” she said. “They helped me. They made me feel secure, and they were really, really ashamed about what happened to me.”
Police said Sanogo wore garb from the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center while he committed the alleged crime.
Sanogo remains behind bars at TGK.
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