Caught on Camera: Violent Dallas Purse Snatching

While Dallas police haven't been able to catch a violent, knife-wielding robber, surveillance cameras caught his latest crime, a purse snatching outside an East Dallas gas station.

Surveillance video shows the suspect wrestle a woman to the ground as she was getting out of her car at the Raceway near Interstate 30 and Jim Miller Road.

"He walks up to her and with no warning slams her to the ground," said Dallas Police Sr. Cpl. Janice Crowther. "As she tries to hold on to her purse, he is using that knife, trying his best to stab her ."

Sr. Cpl. Crowther said the purse may have saved the 28-year-old victim's life. "The knife went into the purse, instead of going into the lady," said Crowther.

The robber's getaway car was a 2008 black Dodge Avenger police believe he stole the day before in a carjacking at a car wash on Grand Avenue near downtown Dallas. The robber used a butcher knife to force his way into an innocent driver's car.

"He was trying to drive away with the victim in the car, the victim jumped out, but still got stabbed,"  said Crowther. The 26 year-old victim was taken to Baylor Medical Center with stab wounds to his back and arms, but is expected to be okay.  

Investigators fear the robber is growing more desperate. "He's used that knife twice and he'll use it again, if he's not caught," Crowther said.

Police found the stolen Dodge Avenger wrecked in the 3600 block of Penelope, but are still looking for the suspect. Investigators processed the stolen car for fingerprints, blood and DNA.

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