Man accused of armed robbery of 78-year-old woman

Sicklerville, NJ (WTXF) - Surveillance video from a neighbor's home security camera captures a frightening crime. It shows a woman walking outside when she is robbed at knife point. The man pretends to walk by then doubles back and grabs her from behind. He has a knife in his hand when he snatched her purse and ran off.

"She came in the house and said she had been robbed," said a woman who doesn't want to be identified but says the victim is her 78-year-old sister. She says her sister was visiting her at her home in the Lehigh Manor Development in Sicklerville when it happened around 3:00 last Friday afternoon.

"She's upset. She's not particularly anxious to come back," said the victim's sister. Police say the man held a hunting knife to the woman's neck and that the woman told him her purse only had 20 dollars and credit cards in it but he took it anyway. Her sister says she came back to the house shaken up and called police right away.

"The way she came in she was upset but the way she came in she went right to the phone. Then she told me after she made the phone call."

Police arrested the suspect today. He's identified as 36-year-old Jamal Gadson. Officers on patrol caught him walking in the area of the same neighborhood and wearing the same clothes he had on when they say he committed the robbery. They also say they found the knife and the victim's purse in his home.

"Yes it bothered me. You're telling me he was caught that really makes me feel more comfortable," said the woman. She says her sister is in the hospital now for medical issues unrelated to what happened.

Police say the suspect had active warrants out for his arrest when they caught him. He's in the Camden County Jail charged with 1st degree armed robbery among other charges.