A 22-year-old Bloomington woman was booked on suspicion of second-degree assault and property damage, but Hennepin County declined to charge her. The Bloomington city attorney's office is now looking at a lesser fifth-degree assault charge instead.
It started with an attempted robbery on Penn Avenue. According to police, the women said a 19-year-old woman was walking to the 22-year-old's house on Russell Avenue when a man called out to her from a building on the 8900 block of Penn Avenue. He asked if she had any money, then grabbed at her pockets before she got away.
Then came the mix-up. Around 2:15 p.m. on June 28, officers were sent to the Holiday Stationstore at 8920 Penn Avenue after a 21-year-old man called to report that 2 women had assaulted him inside the store. He told police he worked at the Dollar Tree across the street and had walked over on his break. The 2 women confronted him there, and police said the 22-year-old knocked his cellphone out of his hand with a miniature bat.
The women told officers they went after him because they thought he was the man who had just tried to rob the 19-year-old. He wasn't. Dollar Tree confirmed he was working that day and had left for his break only minutes before the confrontation. Police then arrested the 22-year-old.
The reports don't say whether anyone has been identified or arrested for the original robbery attempt. As for the woman with the bat, the next step is the city attorney's call.
