MINNEAPOLIS  — A former Minneapolis mayoral candidate said he was beaten over the head in an attempted theft of his iPhone at the Mall of America.

Former Hennepin County Commissioner Mark Andrew said he was attacked about 7 p.m. Thursday outside a Starbucks at the mall in Bloomington.

Andrew said he was at a table when someone grabbed his phone and ran out. He said he chased the thief, who he thinks was male, and two young women waiting outside the coffee shop tackled him. He said one beat him on the head and face with what felt like a club.

“I was targeted because the phone was out and I’m 63 years old, and I’m sure they thought that I was easy pickin’s,” Andrew told the newspaper by telephone Friday morning while on his way to give statements to the Bloomington Police Department.

Two female suspects were arrested. Letaija Shapree Cutler-Cain, 18, of Brooklyn Park was charged with aggravated robbery and assault, and remained in jail Friday. She is scheduled to appear in court Monday.

According to the complaint, Cutler-Cain jumped on Andrew’s back while her companion, a 17-year-old girl, started repeatedly striking Andrew on his head with a metal baton.

Andrew was taken by ambulance to a hospital, where he received nine stitches. He got his phone back from a passer-by who found it.

He said no one at the packed Starbucks intervened when he was getting attacked.

“They were too afraid,” Andrew said.

The person who snatched the phone from him apparently dropped it after seeing the commotion.

“I’m not going to let someone take my phone,” Andrew said. “I’m not going to let that pass. They thought they wouldn’t get chased.”

Andrew came in second behind Betsy Hodges in the election for mayor in November.