Sandy MaloneSan Jose, CA – A 14-year-old carjacker savagely attacked a 72-year-old man in his driveway in San Jose (video below).
Hector Estrada, a retired plumber, said the confrontation occurred at about 10 a.m. on April 3 as he was unloading groceries from his car at his home in the 3200-block of Coldwater Drive, KGO reported.
Estrada said the boy approached him, pulled out a gun, and demanded the keys to his Nissan Sentra.
The older man refused, according to KTTV.
“I said no way. I’m not going to give them. And then he showed me his gun and stuff like that, and I said I don’t care if you have a gun. I’m not going to give you my keys. He reached and grabbed them,” Estrada told KGO.
He said he pointed out the security camera recently installed over his driveway but his assailant was unfazed.
The teenage carjacker jumped into Estrada’s car and tried to leave, but the car’s owner wasn’t giving up that easily.
He said he tried to stop the boy from taking his vehicle, KGO reported.
“I reached in and grabbed it and tried to pull him back. He punched me and broke my glasses,” Estrada explained.
The altercation was caught on video by a newly-installed surveillance camera and showed the older man struggling with the carjacker sitting in the driver’s seat of his car.
“That’s how I got all these cuts. Then I started bleeding so I couldn’t see anymore,” Estrada told KTTV.
The boy got out of the car and started hitting the older man, the video showed.
He punched the older man repeatedly in the face, neck, and back, and then jumped back into the car.
The carjacker reversed out of the driveway and took off, only to crash into another vehicle less than 10 minutes later, KGO reported.
Police said the suspect ran a red light and hit a Dodge Challenger in an intersection, and then jumped out of the vehicle he had stolen and took off on foot.
A witness chased him until the boy brandished his gun and then the witness gave up the chase, KTTV reported.
The driver of the car he hit was injured and transported to the hospital for treatment with non-life-threatening injuries.
The 14-year-old carjacking suspect was arrested later in the day at his home and booked into Santa Clara County Juvenile Hall, according to KGO.
The boy was charged with carjacking, robbery, assault with a deadly weapon, and elder abuse. His name has not been released because of his age.
The carjacking teen cannot be charged as an adult because of a new California law that prohibits 14 and 15 year olds from being tried as adults, KTTV reported.
Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen has argued that the new law undermines the judicial discretion that was codified in Proposition 57 and is therefore unconstitutional.
Estrada, who is a great-grandfather and a former Little League coach, looked bruised and scratched-up after the encounter with his carjacker.
He told KGO that he’s suffering from a terminal illness and has no fear, which is why he fought back against the carjacker.
Watch the carjacking happen in the video below: