Gwendolyn Williamson was too sick to go outside on Sunday so she sent her 14-year-old granddaughter and 11-year-old grandson up the street to buy some soup at the Jewel. As the kids were walking back home on 87th Street, under a viaduct, they were grabbed from behind by two males.
"The big one grabbed my little brother and told him to get on the ground and the small one had grabbed me, threw me on the ground," said the 14-year-old.
She is still too traumatized by the incident to show her face on television. She says after the suspects threw them to the ground, they were ordered to empty their pockets and were beaten some more.
"The big one hit me two times on my head while I was on the ground," she said. "They stole money, an mp3 player and a cell phone.
The incident happened at noon on a Sunday.
Community activist Andrew Holmes was driving by at the time and witnessed the crime. He immediately stopped.
"I just figured they were being robbed. I did the best thing I could do, contact the police department," said Holmes.
Minutes after the robbery the suspects were caught, they fled to this shopping center where off duty Chicago Police officers helped arrest them at Food for Less store.
Andrew Holmes helped police hold and identify the offenders, 18-year-old Alvin Woodard and a 16-year-old have been charged with strong arm robberies. Gwenolyn Williamson wants them to spend a long time in prison.
"I don't care how old they are. If they are big enough to do it, they're big enough to take it ," said Gwendolyn Williamson, victims' grandmother.
Williamson says the crime comes at a time when she just started to let her granddaughter go to the store without an adult.
