A DeKalb County woman said a man slashed her cheek with a knife during an attempted robbery Thursday night at a Kroger gas station.
Theresa Merchant told Channel 2 Action News she stopped on Memorial Drive in Decatur to check the oil in her car and a man with a knife demanded money.
“He said, ‘I want some money,’ and when he said that I said, ‘I don’t have any money,’” Merchant said. “He pulled the knife out of his pocket and he showed it to me.”
As she dialed 911 on her cellphone, Merchant noticed a police car across the parking lot and she started running for help.
“It was like I saw my life flash before me and I was just traumatized,” Merchant said. “I panicked; I was crying.”
The man, identified as Akeem Key in the police report, chased her, Channel 2 reported, and as Merchant turned to see her attacker, the man slashed from her nose to about an inch from her ear.
Merchant said she thought he might kill her.
She realized she’d been cut when the blood started gushing, Merchant said.
“I was screaming and hollering,” she told Channel 2. “He cut me; he cut me.”
Two witnesses comforted Merchant until paramedics arrived and took her to Grady Memorial Hospital as police arrested Key.
He was charged with armed robbery, aggravated assault and elder abuse, according to the police report.
Key was booked into DeKalb County jail.
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