Woman paying for parking has throat slashed by robber

ATLANTA — A woman was paying for parking at Juniper and 5th streets in midtown Atlanta when a robber grabbed at her purse and then slashed her throat when she resisted.

That robber is still on the run.

"That's the reason I haven't slept because I know he's out and he can do it again," witness Fernando Bispo told Channel 2’s Carl Willis.

Bispo said he saw the entire attack Sunday afternoon and vividly remembers the scene.

He told Willis he saw the struggle, chased the robber down 5th Street and eventually confronted him.

"I saw the knife,” Bispo told Willis.

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“He came that close to you?” Willis asked.

“Yeah, very close. But I jumped," Bispo told Willis.

He narrowly escaped injury.

The victim, Marla Franks, was not as fortunate.

"The man then took a knife and cut her throat about 5 to 6 inches," said Officer Stephanie Brown with the Atlanta Police Department.

Franks needed 17 stitches.

Bispo told Willis the robber dropped the victim's purse after all of this and was last seen hopping a fence near Kindred Hospital.

Bispo returned it to the victim, only then realizing how badly she was hurt.

"I was even angrier when I saw this because he tried to kill her," Bispo told Willis.

Police say it's not worth it to risk your life.

"Let it go, because we don't want you to have any type of bodily injury," Brown said.

But Bispo said he had to act.

"I know that was dangerous. I know that was crazy. I knew that, but I just tried to do something," Bispo said.

Cox Media Group