Sketch, reward offered in shooting of 75-year-old

So this is what a guy who would shoot and rob a 75-year-old woman on New Year's Eve looks like, huh?

Today, police released a sketch of the cold-blooded man who shot Judy Ritchie in her face and stole her pocketbook as she walked home with her groceries in broad daylight on Dec. 31 in Mayfair.

The Fraternal Order of Police has also put up a $5,000 reward and the Citizens Crime Commission is offering an additional $1,000 reward for the arrest and conviction of the suspect.

Ritchie, whom I spoke with last week, was walking home with all the trimmings for a New Year's Day feast for her family when the assailant pulled up alongside of her and, without ever getting out of his car, grabbed Ritchie through his open driver's side window.

A struggle between the elderly woman and the young armed robber ensued and it ended when the robber shot Ritchie in her cheek and wrestled her handbag away from her.

Despite her bleeding wound, Ritchie walked more than two blocks home and put away her groceries before being transported to the hospital.

When I spoke with her last week, Ritchie was anything but bitter. The woman with enough moxie to fill the Pennsylvania Convention Center said she was just thankful to be alive.

"He took my paycheck, but that can be replaced. I lost my glasses, but I got another pair. And my cell phone with all my pictures of my grandson, but that can be replaced too," she said. "Life can never be replaced."

Ritchie said she would like to see the man who did this to her caught, not so much for her own sake, but so that nobody else has to go through what she went through.

"I just thank God I'm alive," she said. "I don't want to see it happen to anybody else."

Police have described the suspect as a Hispanic in his late 20s with a trimmed bear. He was wearing a red knit cap during the commission of the crime.

Anyone with information on the case is urged to call Northeast Detectives at 215-686-3153 or the department's tip line at 215-686-8477.