Man Charged With Attacking 85-Year-Old In Home Invasion

ATLANTA — A 21-year-old has been arrested since, police said, two people terrorized an elderly woman inside her southwest Atlanta apartment.

Elderly Woman Attacked, Robbed In Home Invasion

Investigators said the thieves covered 85-year-old Julia Phillips’ face with duct tape and robbed her Saturday. Three days later, Reginald Seaborn turned himself in to police, but they said another suspect is on the loose. Phillips and her family said they believe a girl named Shannon was one of the attackers.

The family recently hired Shannon to help take care of Phillips, who they said is handicapped, and now they believe she worked with someone else to get inside the building and attack Phillips, robbing her of a few TVs.

“I tried to fight him but he’s just too strong,” Phillips said.

Phillips said she opened her door when someone knocked asking for her granddaughter. That’s when she said a man she has never seen pushed his way inside her apartment.

“He put his hand in his pocket and got some tape out and put it all over my nose and face and over my eyes, wrapped it around my head,” Phillips said.

Phillips said she is scraped up from where the man dragged her on the floor.

When he told her to put her hands behind her back, she refused. That’s when she said the man pulled out a knife.

“He come around my neck and said, ‘I’ll cut you if you holler! Don’t holler!’ And I said, ‘I’m not going to holler,’” Phillips said.

She said she heard the man and another person take down her two flat-screen TVs, one from the living room and another in the bedroom.

A neighbor upstairs said he saw a man and a woman, matching Shannon’s description, trying to leave the building with the two TVs.

He called police after hearing Phillips’ call for help.

Phillips’ daughter, Brenda Lawton, said she wants to know how the two got into the building, which is supposed to be locked.

“Have those doors locked, because they don’t need to be sitting here watching TV and all of a sudden someone just knocks,” Lawton said.

The apartment complex said they replaced the exterior doors two weeks ago because of concerns about them not locking properly.

The complex said they have a private security company that patrols the area at night.

The break-in at Phillips’ apartment occurred during daylight hours.

Seaborn was charged with aggravated assault, armed robbery and burglary.