Black Activist, 87, Brutally Beaten and Robbed in Home Invasion

Nearly a month after a brutal home invasion left 87-year-old civil rights activist Dr. Erlin Gooch with two broken arms, severe injuries to her face and head, missing valuables, and a swelling wave of community outrage, authorities still have not made a single arrest. Now, the beloved activist is breaking her silence on the horrifying ordeal that occurred in her own home and left her with nightmares.

According to News Channel 3, a friend grew worried after failing to reach Gooch, prompting a visit to her Ripley, Tennessee, home—about 50 miles north of Memphis—on September 9. There, she found the 87-year-old, who earned her doctorate in theology and fought for civil rights at a young age, lying on the back room floor, covered in blood and severely injured.

Doctors said Gooch—who had marks on her face, hands, and arms consistent with a beating—was repeatedly punched in the face and stomped on. “I really raised my arm to try and defend myself, because she had a knife and was using it on my head. A knife or something, because I have all these wounds in my head. So, I was trying to defend my head. I think he was trying to get to my head because apparently that was the place that he wanted to really attack,” Gooch recalled.

Gooch’s longtime friend, Joyce Cotton, described the horrific aftermath to WFLA 8: her right eye was nearly swollen shut, her head was covered in lacerations, and “the fingers below her knuckles were broken or fractured real bad.” Cotton told the outlet how the assailants left her friend—who spent most of her life advocating for the rights of others—for dead.

Her wallet, phone, purse, and credit cards were also gone, and police later confirmed the stolen cards were immediately used to withdraw cash. Cotton said the intruders “used her bank card and cashed out money through family and friends. Who knows what all is taken?”

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Adding insult to injury, Gooch told investigators she recognized one of the attackers from her neighborhood—who did not act alone in the home invasion. She later gave police at least four different names, but no arrests have been made so far, something attorney Ben Crump is demanding.

“Her attackers used her bank card and walked away. Three weeks later, no arrests. No one should be attacked like this in their own home! She deserves justice,” Crump wrote on X Friday.

Gooch told authorities how her attacker “definitely needs help, but I also want justice” for what they did to her. “I think they should be charged also with attempted murder because after they did that, they didn’t call 911. They didn’t call and check and see if she was okay,” Cotton said. “They just left her lying there in her blood on their floor.”

Online, supporters have rallied for Gooch’s swift recovery and justice. “Prayers n justice for Mother Gooch. She’s a godly pillar in the community n we support her well being as she would us,” one supporter wrote on Facebook. A second added: “She is loved in my hometown of Ripley, Tennessee and beyond. Justice will be served.”

Although Gooch is being treated in a rehab facility and has good and bad days according to Cotton, Gooch said she’s still in a great deal of pain, per WJTV 8.

“My desire is that no one else has to go through this,” Gooch told News Channel 3. “So I am praying for the elderly who are victimized and all because they are the elderly, and don’t have the defenses sometimes to help themselves.”