‘They were beating me’: Woman attacked at Kroger on Mother’s Day

wants more help from LMPD
During the incident, Pamela Ahlstedt-Brown’s nose was broken and her clothes were bloodied

By Stephen Goin | May 12, 2021 at 11:36 PM EDT - Updated May 14 at 5:30 PM
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) - Louisville Metro Police Department officers are investigating an attack on Mother’s Day that left a woman injured in a Kroger parking lot.
Pamela Ahlstedt-Brown told WAVE 3 News the incident happened Sunday as she was leaving a Kroger located on Breckinridge Lane. Brown, a disabled Army veteran, said she was parked in a handicapped space near the entrance. When she started to back out of the space, she said she noticed another vehicle behind her, blocking her in.
“I get out and I say, ‘Do you guys need any help?’ and she said, ‘F* you, you white b**.’ I said, ‘Hold on, you don’t even know me,’” Brown said. “I said, ‘That’s fine. If you don’t need anything, that’s fine. I’ll get back in the car.’”
Brown said the vehicle blocking her appeared to be a black Dodge vehicle — either a Charger or Challenger. She said the vehicle’s passengers, four young Black women, proceeded to throw the contents of a cup at her before attacking her.

“I mean, they were beating me, and I was in a fetal position, covering my face, making sure they didn’t get my eyes,” she said.
According to Brown, the attack was broken up by strangers, not Kroger security personnel. During the incident, her nose was broken.
“It’s hard for us because we all feel like, well what if we would have been there? It makes you feel helpless,” Brown’s husband Edward said. “It was terrible for them and for me to have their mom come home in that condition.”
Brown said she went back to the Kroger on Sunday to speak to LMPD officers and tried to retrieve security footage. Tuesday, her daughter called the police multiple times to obtain security footage to no avail.

“They told her, ‘You could have got the video from Kroger the first day.’ And then he followed that up with, ‘Well, a detective has it, so you can’t get it from Kroger.’ So which was is it? His response was to hang up on her,” Brown said.
Following the attack, Brown said she is heartbroken, anxious, and has nightmares, though she’s grateful she made it back to her family alive. Brown and her husband share the concern that race may have played a role in the incident, though Brown’s husband is Black and her children are biracial.
The veteran fears a similar attack may occur if the perpetrators are not found.
“I could have been killed, but I know how to protect myself,” she said. “I mean, I’m a strong person... It doesn’t mean everybody is this strong.”