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Woman's Finger Nearly Bitten Off During NJ Mall Parking Spot Dispute
By
John Del Signore
Published Mar 10, 2014
Modified Mar 10, 2014
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By
John Del Signore
Published Mar 10, 2014
Modified Mar 10, 2014
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A dispute over a parking spot outside a New Jersey shopping mall turned cannibalistic Saturday when one woman's finger was almost completely bitten off. After getting out of her Saturn Vue at the Cherry Hill Mall shortly before 5 p.m., Tonya Knight, 42, was immediately accosted by two women who claimed she stole their spot. The dispute quickly turned physical, then gory: "I can feel she's biting down. She let me go and I looked at my finger and said, 'Yo, what the f---? You bit my finger off,' " Knight told Philly.com. "She said, 'That's what you get for taking the parking spot, you bitch.'"
Knight had just dropped her friend off at Bahama Breeze before pulling into the parking spot. She says she observed her assailant's car near the open spot, but that the driver hadn't signaled that she'd be turning into it. "When I got out of the car, they were screaming at the top of their lungs, threatening me and calling me names," Knight recalls. The dispute quickly escalated—Knight says that when she threw up her hands in front of her face in self defense, one of the fingers on her right hand ended up in her assailant's mouth.
"By the time I looked at it, it was hanging off by a little piece of skin," Knight tells ABC from her hospital bed. "I immediately picked up my cell, called 911 and followed her into the Nordstrom's... There was a lot of blood. I feel bad for Nordstrom's because it was all over the floor."
Knight, who also sustained scratches to her face, is now waiting to find out if the finger will have to be amputated. She was treated with tetanus shots and tested for HIV.
Meanwhile, police are still searching for the biter. Police describe the suspect as a heavyset black woman in her mid-30s with "bushy" hair, possibly driving an older, dark Audi. "This is pretty crazy; this takes it to a new level," Cherry Hill police department Lt. Amy Winter told Philly.com. "We've had verbal disputes that wound up with tires slashed but nothing of this nature." Whatever happened to just camping out all night until one driver finally gets too exhausted and gives up?
Tagged
malls
new jersey
parking
Shopping
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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