
http://www.omaha.com/news/crime/vid...cle_c60f4dcc-45de-11e5-bd6c-53122e3ec616.html
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Police on Wednesday booked a 22-year-old Omaha man identified as a suspect in the assault and robbery of an elderly woman Sunday in the back of St. Cecilia Cathedral. They also arrested his mother.
An arrest warrant had been issued Wednesday for Wayman Clark after members of the Omaha Police Department’s gang unit thought they recognized Clark as one of two assailants shown in a surveillance video. Crime Stoppers also received several tips indicating Clark may have been one of the men, said Officer Michael Pecha, a police spokesman. Clark was taken into custody just before 11:30 a.m., Pecha said.
Officers with the gang unit and members of the Metro Area Fugitive Task Force located Clark in a vehicle in an apartment complex parking lot at 137th and Harrison Streets. Clark's mother, Charlean Clark, 53, was in the vehicle at the time of the arrest, police said. She was arrested on suspicion of being an accessory to a felony and accused of harboring a fugitive.
The Rev. James Netusil was in the sacristy preparing for 11:30 a.m. Mass when the assault occurred, he said Tuesday. An usher rushed in and asked him for a towel to clean blood from the woman’s face.
The woman, a 76-year-old resident of Johnston, Iowa, can be seen in the video reading a copy of the parish newsletter at the welcome table at 11:06 a.m. in the church at 701 N. 40th St. The assault takes less than 15 seconds.
One of two young men approached the 5-foot-6, 150-pound woman from behind and grabbed her purse before running out the door. The second attacker can be seen hitting the woman squarely on the side of her face, knocking her down. The woman hit her head on the side of the table as she fell.
Surveillance cameras mounted outside show the attackers run out the door, down Burt Street to 39th Street and then north toward Cuming Street, Netusil said. He estimated that the assailants were between 5-foot-8 and 5-foot-10.
According to Douglas County Court records, Clark was sentenced in 2012 to one year in the state prison system for theft by receiving stolen property, a felony.
He also has been convicted of carrying a concealed weapon.
When he was 17, Clark ran away from the Clarinda (Iowa) Academy, a residential facility for at-risk and delinquent teenagers.
Netusil said security cameras have been installed throughout the church and on campus for at least 10 years and the “system is exceptionally thorough.”
“Honestly, I saw the video for the first time this morning, and it just makes you cringe,” Netusil said Tuesday. “After the first kid grabbed her purse, the second one hits her, and there’s no point to it. It was just evil.”
The woman was taken to Creighton University Medical Center with a large bump and scrapes on her forehead, according to an Omaha Police Department report. She was treated in the emergency room and released, a hospital spokeswoman said.
The woman is doing fine, according to a post written by Netusil on Facebook, and she is asking only for prayers for the perpetrators.
“What faith it takes to pray for those who attack you,” Netusil wrote. “So very humbling.”
A video of the incident showing the assault has been posted on St. Cecilia’s Facebook page. The attackers’ faces and clothing are clearly visible on camera.
A parishioner helped the woman into a restroom to help her clean up, Netusil said.
The priest, who is new to the parish, talked to the woman for just a moment before police and paramedics arrived.
“She was pretty shaken up, but she didn’t want to go to the hospital at first,” he said. “From the video, we know that she had just walked in two minutes before and suddenly, she’s attacked.”