NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) — It was shaping up to be a beautiful afternoon in Mid-City. The Mascar household was even preparing to celebrate a birthday.
“I was yoga power walking on the Lafitte greenway,” said Leanne Mascar.
That all came to a screeching halt around 1:30 in the afternoon near the intersection of North Scott and Bienville when neighbor Todd Ecker saw a gray car pull into the intersection.
“It 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,” said Ecker.
He drove off to stop them, a commotion that Leanne Mascar says she’ll never forget.
“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 and they made the corner by Rouses. 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,” said Mascar.
The NOPD says that the victim, Linda Frickey, 73, was dragged nearly an entire block, her arm severed before she was released from the car. Through tears and screams, Leanne ran to get a sheet from her home.
“She was laying there naked, and I thought the indignity she just suffered it was already too much,” said Mascar.
By this point, anyone within earshot rendered what aid they could, including her husband, Mark Mascar.
“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,” said Mark Mascar.
“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,” said Leanne.
While they recovered the woman’s car about a mile away, the NOPD only said four carjackers were responsible for the brutal carjacking. Neighbors say they couldn’t have been much older than teenagers.
“God knows these kids probably run through these justice systems time and time again. (District Attorney) Jason Williams, do your job,” said Ecker.
They’re enraged, they’re incensed, and changed forever after seeing a life taken for no reason.
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“Watching what I saw today, and feeling so helpless in the face of someone’s pain, so obviously it’s horrendous to feel that way to just want to help and do something and feel so helpless it’s enraging me right now,” said Leanne.
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