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Somerville police search for attempted car-jacker

E-mail|Link|Comments () October 12, 2009 02:49 PM

By Jack Nicas, Globe Correspondent

Somerville police are searching for a man who robbed and beat a woman in a supermarket parking lot Sunday morning.

Just after 11:30 a.m., a man wielding a “large kitchen-style knife” approached a car as it pulled into a parking space at Market Basket on Somerville Avenue, said Deputy Police Chief Paul Upton.

After the 45-year-old female driver declined the man’s request for a ride to the hospital, he ran to the passenger’s side door and hopped into the vehicle, police said. The woman wrestled her purse from the suspect and exited the car, but the man caught up to her.

“He punched her in the head and kicked her in the back,” Upton said.

The suspect then ran with the woman’s purse toward Union Square in Somerville.

The victim was treated for minor injuries at the scene but declined transport to a hospital.

Witnesses described the suspect as a 6-foot-1-inch, 25- to 30-year-old white male with a thin build and flat-top hair cut. He wore a gray, long-sleeved shirt, blue jeans and white sneakers.

Views from Market Basket surveillance cameras do not extend to where the incident occurred.

Upton said the robbery is an isolated incident.

“That’s a very busy market. This is not only unusual for that area, but it’s unusual for anywhere,” he said.

Anyone with information is urged to call Somerville Police at 617-625-1212.