Four teenagers are facing murder charges in the death Monday of a 73-year-old woman whose arm had been severed as she was dragged for a block along a New Orleans street during a carjacking.
New Orleans Police Superintendent Shaun Ferguson said a 17-year-old boy, a 16-year-old girl and two 15-year-old girls were arrested. Two teens were turned in by their parents, he said.
All four face second-degree murder charges. Ferguson said he will recommend that they be charged as adults, according to CBS News.
A report by WVUE-TV identified John Honore as the 17-year-old facing murder charges in Monday’s incident. It said he had been charged as an adult in a carjacking two years ago, but the charges were later dropped.
Police said Linda Frickey died after she was entangled in a seatbelt when the carjackers pulled her from the car.
The car “was dragging a lady by the seatbelt outside the car. The door had closed on the seatbelt, and she was stuck in it. … I got out of my vehicle screaming, ‘Please stop.’ Other neighbors were also screaming,” witness Todd Ecker said, according to WVUE.
Leanne Mascar said Frickey died in agony as the teens drove off with her car.
“She was screaming, and she was screaming to please let her go, and then they slowed down and opened the door to kick her out,” she said.
“As soon as I saw her, I screamed. I just started running for her. I thought if I could somehow, I don’t know what I could do, but I thought if I could dislodge her from this car … when I looked down her body was already there, and her arm was. … It’s just not something you expect to see,” Mascar said.
Mark Mascar joined his wife in trying to comfort Frickey as she lay in the street dying.
“Just to sit beside a woman who’s a mother or grandmother and watch her fade away, as my wife said we were praying. I wasn’t, I was angry, I was telling her to hang in there because every time I heard a siren I was hoping and praying it was the ambulance. I kept telling her to hang in there, breathing, her eyes were moving. I’ve never seen something so horrific,” he said.
“If you are so afraid to go from your house to your car and can’t sit in your car to make a phone call without some delinquent pulling you out and dragging you down the street, there’s something wrong with that,” Leanne Mascar said.
Frickey’s family was trying to comprehend what was done to her, according to WVUE.
Family members say 73-year-old Linda Frickey was leaving her office at a nearby insurance company when she was carjacked earlier this afternoon in Midcity. She died on scene after suspects dragged her from her vehicle for at least a block.?Hear from devastated family up next. pic.twitter.com/mzSlY16S2q
— Shay O’Connor (@SOCONNORNEWS) March 22, 2022
“We are very angry. I never ever would want to wish that on another human being,” said Kathy Richard, Frickey’s sister-in-law.
“Just open the door. He kicked … try to kick her out but it didn’t work. How could you kick her? It’s just beyond comprehension. It’s evil. And you don’t just go from being in school to just taking a walk, to killing somebody. It was murder. Downright murder,” she said.
“Linda should have lived to be 100 years old still helping everybody,” Richard said. “She didn’t have the chance to see her son get married next year and her granddaughter was only 7 years old. She didn’t get enough time with her. She did not deserve to go that way.”
JinnyLynn Griffin, Frickey’s sister, said the carjackers acted with utter indifference to Frickey’s life.
“I can’t say this enough: When they pulled away and she was in that strap, they made the decision to murder her. They should pay for it,” she said.
DRAGGING DEATH UPDATE: New Orleans police announce all four teens suspected in the carjacking and dragging death of 73-year-old Linda Frickey are in custody, facing murder counts https://t.co/UeUu790kHA
— FOX 8 New Orleans (@FOX8NOLA) March 22, 2022
Police had posted a video of the suspects, leading the parents of two teens to turn in their children.
“The parents of one 15-year-old female immediately called our investigators and turned their daughter in,” Ferguson said.
“This was an incredibly difficult decision on behalf of these parents,” the police superintendent said.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
