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Police search for men who slammed woman to ground, snatched purse at Ocoee Publix

OCOEE, Fla. — Ocoee police are searching for three people they said knocked an elderly woman to the ground at a busy Publix and took off with her purse.

Charlotte Dunaway, 74, is in the hospital with a severe head injury, a broken clavicle and a broken shoulder.

“She is very dizzy, very sore, but the main thing is that the neurologist has said the bleeding outside of her brain has stopped,” said Dunaway’s daughter, Scarlett Root.

The victim was walking into the Publix on Silver Star Road Friday morning while the store was packed with customers.

Surveillance video shows the woman walking into the store with a grocery cart when three men walked out of the store, slammed the woman to the ground and snatched her purse.

Police said the men entered the store around 10 a.m.

“She’s in the hospital with bleeding outside her brain. She had a broken clavicle and a lot of bruising,” said the victim’s daughter Kristi Tilton.

The victim was rushed to Orlando Regional Medical Center.

“She’s going to be here through the night. They will watch and monitor her. We are hoping and praying for the best,” Tilton said. “She is an older woman. She is frail and it’s just very upsetting. Makes you want to get your hand on the guy that did it.”

Investigators are looking for three men involved in the attack.

“My father just passed away. The woman has been dealing with a lot. She has a handicapped son, and now she’s laid up in the hospital, hurt," Tilton said.

Investigators said the men drove away in a purple, two-door vehicle.

“There is absolutely someone who knows who the people are and I want them to think if this were their mother or grandmother or their wife, they would want these guys to be busted and brought in,” Root said.

Anyone with information is asked to call police.

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