CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- A Charlotte mother is recovering after being punched and carjacked while getting dinner for her children Sunday night.
Charlotte Mecklenburg Police said it happened around 9 p.m. at the McDonalds drive-thru in the Quail Corners Shopping Center. The mother spoke to WCNC, but she asked not to be identified for fear of her safety.
“Her body hurts," a translator said. "She can’t eat because her mouth hurts a lot.”
The woman said a masked man armed with a knife came up to her window, punched her, pulled her out of her car and drove off.
“He’s going to kill me,” the mother recalled thinking.
According to CMPD dispatch audio, officers scrambled to set up a perimeter.
“The employees just said they could hear her beginning to order, and then all of a sudden, she yells and then the car took off,” an officer said on the radio.
Police found her car nearby, but no suspects; the mother's identification cards containing all her personal information was missing.
It’s not the first time CMPD has responded to a violent crime at Quail Corners Shopping Center.
A teenager in 2016 was robbed at gunpoint just a few weeks before Christmas. Last June, another teenager was shot as he got off a CATS bus, which prompted three nearby schools to go on lockdown.
CMPD hasn't released a physical description of the suspect. They've asked anyone with information to call 911 or Crime Stoppers at 704-334-1600.