After attempting to snatch the purse of a 75-year-old woman, Mikayla Hull was detained by three men while police were called, and then bit attorney Jonathan Damon on the wrist.
Sometimes ordinary citizens help take a bite out of crime, and sometimes criminals bite back.
A purse-snatcher who was detained and held on a Grand Rapids, Mich., sidewalk while police were called bit an attorney who had pinned her to the ground Tuesday, and the incident was captured on video.
Witnesses say that Mikayla Hull rode a bicycle through a crowded downtown neighborhood and snatched the purse of 75-year-old Evelyn Searl, causing her to fall and land on her face.
Attorney Jonathan Damon and two other men quickly detained Hull, and Damon got on top of her, using his knees to pin her arms to the pavement.
Hull repeatedly pleads with Damon to get off of her, at one point saying of the victim, “Dude, she’s rich, she’s eating in a restaurant,”
When confronted with the allegation that she punched Searl, Hull fires back, “I didn’t break her nose. I snatched her purse. It was sitting on the table. I swear to God I wouldn’t hit her.”
Damon, who told MLive he weighed 250 pounds, refused to budge until police arrived, prompting Hull to turn her head and bite him on the wrist.
In response, Damon punched the woman in the head repeatedly, until one of the other men stops him.
“Hey, hey, hey,” the bystander tells Damon.
“She’s biting me,” Damon says.
“You just assaulted me!” Hull cried, while continuing to struggle.
The encounter was captured on video by a reporter for the Grand Rapids Press.
Minutes later, police arrived and took Hull into custody, charging with larceny from a person and aggravated assault.
Searl suffered minor injuries and was treated at the scene by paramedics.
During her arraignment on Thursday, Hull, 24, apologized to the victim in the crime.
“That was really wrong,” Hull said at Kent County Correctional Facility. “I apologize for snatching your purse.”
“Pretty much, life’s been really hard, just being homeless,” Hull added. “That gave me no right to snatch your stuff, period.”
Though he punched Hull several times after being bit, Damon does not face any charges in the incident.
"I don't think a crime was committed by him. To the contrary, he was defending himself," Grand Rapids Police Lt. Pete McWatters told MLive.
