Video: Witnesses pull carjacking suspect from van in violent encounter
A 21-year-old San Diego man is facing carjacking, kidnapping and other charges after he hopped into the empty driver’s seat of a van, but was then dragged out and subdued by an angry group of bystanders in the City Heights neighborhood.
Ismael Velasquez Hernandez was arrested by a San Diego police officer on suspicion of kidnapping, carjacking, child cruelty, resisting arrest and several drug charges.
He remains in county jail and is set to be arraigned Tuesday.
The Sunday afternoon incident was captured on video, with the carjacker shown refusing to get out of the van. A woman’s frantic voice and a child’s cry can be heard from inside.
Witnesses who came to the woman’s aid can be seen kicking and punching the carjacker after he was pulled from the seat. Several in the group also helped a police officer handcuff him.
Police say Hernandez had attempted to carjack a van outside a grocery market. Neither the woman nor the child was hurt in the scuffle, police said.
Twitter: @LATsandiego
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