An 81-year-old woman was carjacked while providing food to the homeless on Monday in Redlands, California.
The incident happened outside the Stater Bros. store located on E. Colton Avenue, and surveillance footage caught the moment the suspect approached the woman, Fox 11 reported Wednesday.
According to authorities, the suspect grabbed the woman’s keys and got into the driver’s seat. The Redlands Police Department shared the clip of what happened.
Suspect arrested in carjacking of woman feeding homelessA suspect in the carjacking of an 81-year-old Redlands woman was arrested Wednesday evening, May 25, after Los Angeles Police spotted the stolen vehicle in a parking structure in the 500 block of East 11th Street in Los Angeles.Police found 24-year-old Roberto Carlos Sanchez Jr. in the driver’s seat of the 2015 silver Kia Sportage with the keys in his possession. LAPD arrested Sanchez for possession of a stolen vehicle and contacted Redlands Police.RPD detectives responded to the LAPD Newton Community Police Station and, based on evidence and witness statements, confirmed Sanchez was the suspect in the carjacking that occurred Monday, May 23, in the parking lot of the Stater Bros. Market, 11 E. Colton Ave. Sanchez was transported to West Valley Detention Center in San Bernardino where he is being held in lieu of $250,000 bail on charges of carjacking and elder abuse.Shortly after 3:30 p.m. Monday, Redlands Police Dispatch received a call of a stolen vehicle that had just occurred in the Stater Bros. parking lot. When officers arrived they located the victim, an 81-year-old woman who had come to provide a meal to the homeless in the area. While she was handing out the meals, the suspect forcefully took the keys from her and got into the driver’s seat of her vehicle. The suspect then fled in the vehicle while the victim was holding onto the driver’s door, which knocked her to the ground. The victim was unharmed. The suspect was last seen driving south on Orange Street and entering the westbound Interstate 10, with the rear hatch of the stolen vehicle still open.Police released surveillance video collected from Stater Bros. on the Redlands Police Department YouTube Channel. View the video at https://youtu.be/wBVDAnC4RGY.
Posted by Redlands Police Department on Thursday, May 26, 2022
Once the suspect got into the vehicle and closed the door, the woman appeared and tried to open it. Moments later, the vehicle reversed, and she was knocked to the pavement. Bystanders were seen approaching the vehicle as it left the scene with its back door still open:
The woman managed to get on her knees, and someone eventually helped her stand up. Per the Fox 11 report, the woman was not hurt during the incident.
In its social media post on Thursday, Redlands police said the suspect in the carjacking had been arrested Wednesday once Los Angeles Police found the car in a parking structure on East 11th Street in Los Angeles.
“Police found 24-year-old Roberto Carlos Sanchez Jr. in the driver’s seat of the 2015 silver Kia Sportage with the keys in his possession. LAPD arrested Sanchez for possession of a stolen vehicle and contacted Redlands Police,” the agency continued.
Sanchez was taken to West Valley Detention Center in San Bernardino and held in place of a $250,000 bail regarding charges of carjacking and elder abuse.
The department shared photos of the suspect on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Democrat mayors in Los Angeles and San Francisco who supported the “Defund the Police” movement were trying to add more officers while their cities suffered from crime waves, Breitbart News reported last week.
“Both cities face ongoing efforts to recall local prosecutors. In San Francisco, District Attorney Chesa Boudin faces a recall election on the June 7 ballot. In Los Angeles County, George Gascón faces an aggressive petition drive for a recall election,” the outlet said.
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