MILWAUKEE — Calls for help filled an East Side neighborhood Sunday night just before 9 p.m.
"It happened right here,” Luke Labonte said.
Labonte reached out to TMJ4 after he and his girlfriend were robbed at the intersection of Bartlett Avenue and Lafayette Place. He walked TMJ4’s Megan Lee through what happened.
A neighbor's doorbell camera video shows two people running toward Lafayette Place from a car parked on North Bartlett Ave. In the video, you can hear Labonte screaming for help.
Watch: Milwaukee couple spreads awareness after armed robbery on East Side
Their lovely Sunday night walk home turned into a nightmare.
"A car pulled up and five people came out and tried stealing everything on us,” Labonte explained.
He said the situation got even worse within seconds.
"I tried talking to them and leveling and reasoning. That's when they hit her in the face with a gun,” Labonte said.
His girlfriend has a black and blue eye now.
According to the Milwaukee Police Department, “the armed suspect approached and struck the victim, demanded and obtained the victim’s purse.”
Neighbors heard Labonte calling for help and called 9-1-1.
"We started screaming out the windows everybody like we're calling the cops, what are you doing, get away from them, leave them alone,” a neighbor who wanted to remain anonymous said.
Labonte said his neighbors saved his life.
"They were one step away from potentially ending someone's life. Our outcome is traumatizing and scary but imagine what happens to the next person,” Labonte explained.
He wants to make sure this doesn’t happen to anyone else.
"That's why I reached out to you guys to just make sure that people are aware of what’s going on because I don't think it is talked about enough," Labonte said.
MPD continues to seek unknown suspects. Anyone with any information should contact Milwaukee Police at (414) 935-7360, or to remain anonymous, contact Crime Stoppers at (414) 224-Tips or P3 Tips.
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