An allegedly stolen Prius knocked an elderly female pedestrian down Thursday as the police hit the car to end a high-speed chase in Los Angeles, California, a video showed.
The Toyota Prius could be seen zipping through Sepulveda Boulevard in Harbor City, running a red light twice, climbing a curb, and knocking down a signpost, the video, provided by NBC Los Angeles, showed. It then slowed down and turned at an intersection between Vermont Avenue and Sepulveda Boulevard, where a police vehicle conducted a PIT maneuver, striking the Prius, which then struck the woman who was crossing the road and sent her flying to the curb. The carjacking suspect who drove the Prius started running, the video showed.
The elderly woman was identified as 66-year-old Maria Salazar. She sustained bruises but walked home unassisted, with her shopping bags, NBC Los Angeles reported. “I was crossing the street and I don’t remember anything. I just felt the impact,” she told NBC Los Angeles. She also reportedly said the officers should have stopped due to a red light as she had the right of way. (RELATED: Carjacking Spree Begins With Murdered Mother, Leaves Civilian Dead And Ends With Cops Spraying Bullets Into Stolen Van)
“I don’t know why they were chasing him,” Salazar’s daughter, Diana, told NBC Los Angeles. “The urgency of stopping him. I don’t know if they saw my mom.”
The suspect in the Prius allegedly had carried out a carjacking spree and was fleeing the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department (LASD) when he allegedly carjacked the Prius within about four minutes, the Torrance Police Department said in a statement. The suspect fled on foot from the car after the police struck it but was arrested before long and handed over to the LASD, the statement noted.
Salazar refused treatment by emergency medical personnel but left the scene voluntarily and later went to a hospital, according to the statement.