Victim Janaira Berry dies in hospital after Stone Mountain mugging

A 23-year-old Stone Mountain woman died Tuesday, two weeks after a man mugged her outside of her apartment.

At the time of the attack, her injuries were thought to be so minor, she didn't even go to the hospital.

Janaira Berry was funny and creative, according to her mother.

"She had like a really big heart, almost naive, but not," Angelette Berry Johnson said. "She chose to love."

That vibrant, bubbly, sugary sweet love is why friends called her by her last name, "Berry."

"She's just always happy, which is why you always wanted to be around her. The energy just brought you closer," Tiffany Orama said.

Berry worked as a customer service rep from her Stone Mountain apartment.

On day in late March, as she went outside to stretch her legs and get the mail, a man grabbed her and demanded money. Her family says, she told the man she didn't have any, and he punched her in the face, knocking her out.

Her family says paramedics thought her jaw was simply swollen. But two days later Berry was in the hospital having surgery on a broken jaw.

Her family says there were complications, problems with her lungs and blood pressure, that caused Berry to be hospitalized for several days. But doctors eventually released her and Tuesday moing, she and her mother were planning on going home to Florida where she grew up.

"She went downstairs, [I] thought she was going to go and pack," Berry Johnson says. "And I heard her crying. And I went downstairs and asked her what was wrong and she said she couldn't breathe."

Berry passed away before an ambulance could get her to the hospital.

A DeKalb County Police spokesperson says investigators are waiting to hear from the medical examiner on the exact cause of Berry's death before they upgrade this to a murder case. Right now investigators do not have a description of the suspect.

"We were not prepared for a 23-year-old to die," Berry Johnson says.

Emotionally Berry's family can't bring themselves to even think about the man who attacked her.

And financially, they say they can't say goodbye the way she deserves.

"We just want to gather and say goodbye and send her off right, the way she deserves. With all her friends and family," Orama says.

Orama is helping raise money for the family. You can find more information here: gofundme.com/re7wns