The suspect is 40. The alleged victim is 87.
"The guy's a bum. I mean he's living off of grandmother. I mean it's not some stranger, it's your grandson," says Michael Chitwood.
That grandson is 40 year old Edward Malm. He was arrested Wednesday evening for allegedly abusing his 87 year old grandmother who uses a wheelchair, even allegedly confining her to her basement bedroom at times.
"To keep her downstairs when his friends were having their drug parties, he would take batteries out of her stair-chair so she couldn't get up to the first floor," explained Chitwood.
Malm lived with his grandmother in her Clifton Heights home.
Police say she asked Malm to set up her new bed earlier in the week, when he allegedly flew into a drug-induced rage, taking her wheelchair, and shoving her into a wall.
"The way he grabbed her, her arms are black and blue. He drove her so hard into the wall, her words were, she thought she was going to fall out of the wheelchair," Chitwood explained.
Police accompanied health officials to the home after receiving complaints that the house was trashed and that there may be abuse occurring inside.
Authorities say they found Malm passed out upstairs with a crack pipe and crack-cocaine next to him. Neighbors worry for their friend.
"Shocked, I can't believe that. I feel sorry for her," said neighbor Nancy Smith. "It's a shame. I don't feel sorry for him."
A caseworker from the county Office of Services for the Aging has been assigned to work with the victim.
Malm faces assault, harassment, and drug charges.
"The best way to describe him is a moron. I called him a street-urchin but he's a moron. He didn't care. He didn't care," said Chitwood.
The grandson remains behind bars in lieu of $20,000 cash bail.
