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‘All I Could Do Was Just Hold My Stomach': Woman 7 Months Pregnant With First Child Blindsided, Brutally Attacked in NYC Stairwell

"I really thought I was gonna die," the tearful victim said. "My body just went numb after awhile"

What to Know

  • Newly released surveillance footage by the NYPD shows a pregnant woman getting clobbered by two women in the Bronx
  • The victim, 19-year-old Tylesha Mohammed, tells News 4 she is seven months pregnant with her first child, a girl
  • " All I could do was just hold my stomach. I didn't care about holding my face," she said. "I just cared about my daughter"

A woman who is seven months pregnant with her first child, a girl, was blindsided and brutally beaten by two other women as she made her way down a stairwell in the Bronx to go out and get orange juice, cops and the victim say. 

The duo knocked Tylesha Mohammed, 19, down as she was making her way into the lobby area of a building in Melrose last Thursday. Once she was on the ground, the suspects started to kick her repeatedly and then stole her cellphone, cops say.

Mohammed tells News 4 she was terrified -- and not just for herself. 

"I really thought I was gonna die," she said, breaking into tears. "My body just went numb after awhile. All I could do was just hold my stomach. I didn't care about holding my face. I didn't care how my face was gonna look. I just cared about my daughter." 

Investigators released surveillance video from inside the building that shows the two women clobbering her. Mohammed said she did nothing to provoke the attack. She says she did know her attackers, that they had exchanged words over Facebook in the past but had never met in person. 

Mohammed says the duo was looking for someone else but recognized her and wanted to send a message. 

"She says, 'Oh since we can't find the person we're looking for, that's the girl.' And she just jumped me," the young woman said of the attack. 

Mohammed said the attack threw her into a seizure, and that the suspects threatened to "break" her face and kill her baby. 

The two female suspects then ran away from the scene, leaving the pregnant woman injured with bruising and swelling to her face, police said. She was taken to an area hospital, where she got stitches inside her lip and was treated for a bloody nose and bruised face, among other injuries. 

The mother-to-be says that her daughter is just fine, thankfully. 

"She is really strong. When I went to the hospital they don't know how she survived," Mohammed said, adding her daughter will be named Nyla. 

But Mohammed says she's still being harassed, and she's frightened the suspects will attack again. 

"They like, 'Since you want to snitch and go to the cops this time when we catch you we're gonna make sure the baby die,'" Mohammed said. "So I just told my aunt -- I'm scared for my life." 

Officials asked anyone with information to call the Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS.

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