Near-victim of Christian, Newsom attacker talks

As the General Manager of the Tennessee Theater, Becky Hancock often has her eyes on stage.

"What I remember most are his eyes," Hancock explained. "That's how I was able to identify the photograph."

But for weeks, all she could see was the face of the man she says grabbed her purse when she stopped at a Pizza Hut on North Broadway to pick up a pizza on her way home from work on January 8.

"I saw anger, and then a little bit of bewilderment," she said.

He may have been as surprised as she was.

"My first reaction was, 'No, you can't have my purse,'" she said. "And I threw my shoulder back, and as I did that, the strap on my purse broke, and I got the purse, and he got the strap."

When he turned to leave, she says she noticed he was also holding a gun.

She says the clerk behind the counter told her that the man that left on foot had been pointing it at her.

"Once it hit me, what he had and what he could have done, I was extremely frightened," Hancock explained.

Police gave Hancock another reason to fear during a photo-line-up two days later.

"My question was, 'Obviously this person has a record since this is a mugshot you already have,'" she explained. "And the investigator told me, 'We're investigating them for some other offenses.'"

The investigator told Hancock the man she had identified, Lemaricus Davidson, was also a suspect in the murders of Chris Newsom and Channon Christian.

That's how she learned she'd come face to face with one of their alleged killers the day after they died.

"He's not just a random purse snatcher, he's someone who, he obviously has some serious evil in his heart," she said.

But Hancock calls herself lucky.

"Channon, she doesn't have a chance to speak about what happened," Hancock explained.

She has offered to testify or do whatever is necessary to help prosecutors win justice for the victims' families.

She is only speaking publicly now because on top of more than 40 counts of murder, rape and kidnapping, Davidson was recently indicted for robbing the Pizza Hut cashier at gunpoint and then trying to steal from her.

"You know, maybe I helped save the cashier's life by being a witness, or he helped save my life," she says of the timing. "I thought about the fact I resisted. He didn't get my car. He was kept in Knoxville for a couple more days."