Friends, neighbors and family gathered on South 51st Street to pray for an elderly woman who has given to this block for over five decades.
"The things she told us were brutal. They were brutal," the victim's daughter Joyce Collins said.
The terror unfolded last Monday.
The victim was asleep in her bed when she awoke to an intruder standing above her.
"The perpetrator said 'don't look at me.' My mother looked so he beat her," the victim's son Gary Davis said.
He then sexually assaulted her and ransacked the house.
Police believe the intruder entered through a side window.
He got away with $25 and an elderly woman's innocence.
"He stayed there for two hours, he stayed in that house for two hours," Davis said.
"Something was said, that I don't want to say, that he said to her that we know it's someone who knows her," Collins said.
Those who attended the vigil are trying to prevent other crimes around the city. They're urging city block captains and concerned residents to check on seniors, make sure they are locking their doors and windows so they too don't become victims of the evil on our streets.
"It lessens the opportunity for individuals to do that type of crime," block captain Gary Benjamin said.
Police have only a vague description of the perpetrator.
