Video shows driver intentionally ramming his car into elderly homeless woman in parking lot of California church

CARLOS GARCIA

California police are asking for the public’s help in identifying a driver who intentionally rammed his car into a 77-year-old woman in a church parking lot after a verbal altercation.

The video is from surveillance cameras at the parking lot of the First Presbyterian Church of Heyward in Castro Valley on Saturday evening.

It shows a white sedan almost back into the homeless woman before they appear to have a verbal dispute. The car then circles around and sideswipes the woman, forcing her to drop her cane.

Then the car circles around again in the parking lot and hits the back end of a different car before speeding up to slam into the woman and her cart again. The woman is momentarily thrown onto the car’s hood before falling to the ground.

Deputies were called to the scene at about 7:25 p.m.

Church workers told KTVU-TV that they were shocked and had never seen the driver there before. Aaron Horner, the church’s director of community outreach, said that the woman was homeless, hearing impaired, and often attended the church.

A program manager at the church told KTVU that she visited the hospitalized woman and that she had suffered head lacerations and bruising but was in good spirits.

Police said that the license plate of the car was not visible in the video but that it was likely a mid-2010s Nissan Altima. The driver faces charges of felony hit and run and vehicular assault.

“Disgusting. Someone who is lawless, someone who does not have compassion or empathy for anyone else, disregard for life. We want to bring this person to justice to have them be held accountable for it,” said Alameda County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Tya Modeste about the case.

Horner also had a message for the driver.

“I hope you get the help you need, man,” he said. “Hurting other people, that’s not it.”