Great-Grandmother Traumatised After Grocery Store Assault in Georgia
A 73-year-old great-grandmother has been left deeply traumatised after a young man violently slapped her on her backside and grinned at her while she was shopping for groceries. Mae St. Julien was at the Kroger store in Ellenwood, Georgia, approximately twenty minutes outside of Atlanta, on Thursday around 4:30 PM. She was browsing for ingredients for a recipe she had discovered on the social media platform TikTok.
Sudden Attack in Aisle Three
While walking in aisle three of the supermarket, a location she has patronised for over two decades, St. Julien suddenly heard what she described as a loud pop followed by a sharp sting. "It made a loud noise. Like a gunshot almost," St. Julien recounted to local television station WSB-TV. To her horror, the alleged assailant then turned around, smirked at her, and promptly ran away from the scene.
The elderly woman immediately reported the incident to a store manager, who subsequently contacted the police. What officers told her next left St. Julien even more stunned. After she detailed her ordeal, the police informed her that they had just finished investigating a remarkably similar case at a grocery store directly across the street. In that incident, a man had attacked two other women in the same manner.
Impact and Aftermath
The distressing event has left Mae St. Julien feeling profoundly uneasy and violated. She characterised the slap as a form of sexual assault. The psychological impact has been so significant that she is now considering seeking professional counselling to help cope with the trauma.
More than anything, St. Julien expressed a desperate desire for the perpetrator to be apprehended. "I want him to be caught, to be stopped," she stated emphatically, worried he might target other vulnerable individuals. Consequently, she has decided she will no longer shop at that particular Kroger location, stating she does not feel safe there anymore.
Police Investigation and Context
The DeKalb County Police Department confirmed they are actively investigating the incident involving St. Julien. However, they indicated they have no official record of the other alleged assaults mentioned by officers, suggesting the other two women may have chosen not to pursue criminal charges. The Daily Mail has reached out to Kroger for an official statement on the matter.
This inappropriate assault follows another troubling case from recent months. In Kentucky, a thirteen-year-old teenager was charged with third-degree sexual abuse after he was caught on video surveillance groping a 78-year-old woman, Jan Fletcher, on her own front porch. Fletcher recalled the teen asking if anyone else was home, leading her to fear a potential robbery during the assault.
