Pregnant woman says she was beaten, robbed

COBB COUNTY, Ga. — A pregnant Cobb County woman said she was the victim of an attack that's left her battered, bruised and broke.

Ashley Barbara told Channel 2’s Nicole Carr that a man robbed and beat her at the entrance of her fiancé’s apartment complex, ignoring pleas from the victim's mother, who was asking the attacker not to hurt the baby.

Barbara said her family had just celebrated the news of her baby with a special dinner. %

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She told Carr she was having a craving and wanted to walk across the street to a gas station for ice cream.

"It was like a monster is the best way to describe it. Not a human. It was a monster," Barbara said about the man who attacked her.

Barbara told Carr the punching and kicking seemed endless, but at four months pregnant, she tried to fight back.

"It was sheer anger and hatred," Barbara said.

The 29-year-old wears the evidence of a brutal attack she said happened around 11 p.m. Thursday at the entrance of the 1900 Vinings Apartment Complex on South Atlanta Road.

After the dinner, Barbara said she asked her mother to walk with her across the street to a gas station, where she'd satisfy her ice cream craving.

Barbara said on the walk back to her fiancé’s apartment, a pewter four-door sedan crept up next to them and before the driver went for her and her purse, “he throws me to the ground, drags me.”

“He continued to kick and beat me until I don't remember anything else at that point except just thinking, 'This is it. This is how I go,'” Barbara said.

"I felt really helpless," said Valerie Robinson, Barbara’s mother.

Robinson told Carr she pleaded with the attacker.

"I said, 'She's pregnant. Please take me,' but I had nothing to offer. No purse with me or anything he would have wanted," Robinson said.

Barbara said an unidentified neighbor scared the man away, telling police he'd lost the suspect in a car chase.

One good report came from the hospital that night: The unborn child will be OK.

"They said this little one is a fighter for sure, and I know that we're going to have a very deeper connection than I could have ever imagined," Barbara said.

Barbara said the suspect got away with hundreds of dollars in cash and used her debit card at a QT in Mableton about 45 minutes after the attack.

She described the suspect as 5 foot 8 with a dark complexion with unkempt hair and beard, wearing an insignia on a dirty blue hoodie and eyeglasses.

Carr spoke with the apartment complex management Tuesday. They said they'll be able to hand over surveillance video from security cameras as soon as the company that runs their server downloads the footage.

Cox Media Group