A Culture of Badassery: Ice Pick Edition

After her husband died in 1988, she slowly grew more cautious. She kept her doors locked, and kept a small, wood-handled ice pick handy.

The sun hadn't set on Aug. 7 when she heard a knock at the door. She looked through the peephole, the ice pick in her right hand. "He looked clean. He looked neat. His clothes looked nice. And foolishly I opened the door."

The man shoved her down, covered her eyes with tape, and began kicking and hitting her.

"I don't think he knew I had the ice pick until I was down on the floor. I was just stabbing blindly."

She felt him taking the ice pick, and thought, "Lord, is this how I'm going to come home? And I waited for him to stab me ... While this was going on, I said, 'What would your mother think of what you're doing to an old lady?' "

Her attacker finally fled with her purse. She staggered to the phone and called 911.

St. Petersburg police on Thursday arrested Dion Sookoo, 19. Detectives also arrested Randy Polite, 19, and Martin Kiss, 30, on charges of obstruction of justice after they lied about Sookoo's location.

"He had the nerve to tell the police that he wouldn't have hit me if I hadn't stuck him with the ice pick," Ives said. "I hope I nicked him even a little, so every time he sees the nick, he'll remember how it felt and where he got it from."