Beloved Elderly South Korean Store Owner Beaten and Robbed in Baltimore

West Baltimore police are still looking for an unidentified suspect who attacked and robbed 71-year-old store owner, Grace Lyo, also known by locals as “Ms. Grace”, late last month.

The incident took place on September 22 at around 11:22 a.m. at the Sandtown Market in 700 block of Baker Street. Ms. Grace was filling the stock of a cooler when a man, whom she had a bad feeling after seeing him, walked into her store.

Speaking to Fox 5 Baltimore, the victim said the yet-to-be-identified suspect lunged and hit her on the head before forcing her to open the store’s register, which didn’t have anything inside except coins at the time of the incident. So the suspect took her purse instead, which contained money and Ms. Grace’s cellphone.

“He hit my head. I had a bruise here. It’s almost gone now. He was holding me. It was a terrible feeling,” she told the news outlet.

This isn’t the first time Ms. Grace faced some trouble at her store. In 2015, one of her other stores was set on fire during the Freddie Gray riots.

Ms. Grace, who moved from Seoul, South Korea to Baltimore, has owned the store for 27 years now. Many people from the community know and love her, and were shocked to hear of the crime.

“I’m just surprised, honestly, because she’s such a good person,” Diamond Babb, a neighbor, told the TV station.

“She helps out everyone. She’s been there for years,” another neighbor, Donna Poole, said.

Ms. Grace has watched many children grow up into upstanding men and women, acting as a mentor to some who were caught stealing from her store.

Because of her good heart, Ms. Grace asked the man who robbed her to try and turn his life around for the better.

“Please, please change your life. Please, be a good person,” she said.

To anyone who might have any kind of information regarding the suspect, who is described as being around 17 to 22 years old, with a height of approximately 5’10” to 6’0”, please contact the police at 410-396-2100 or text the number 443-902-4824.

Images via YouTube / WBAL-TV 11 Baltimore

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