Boy Arrested in Carjacking That Injured Woman, 73

Los Angeles police officers arrested a 14-year-old Canoga Park boy Friday for allegedly shoving a 73-year-old woman out of her car--causing her to suffer a broken hip, arm and nose--while stealing the vehicle, police said.

Police detectives said they will ask the district attorney’s office to file robbery and attempted murder charges against the youth--who was not named because of his age.

Los Angeles police had arrested the same teen-ager Feb. 10, for driving a vehicle stolen during a Feb. 3 carjacking from the parking lot of a Pic-N-Save on Sherman Way in Canoga Park. That is the same lot where Esther Keely, the victim of Thursday’s robbery, was also injured, Detective Joel Price said.

Keely was sitting in the passenger seat when the boy jumped into the driver’s seat and grabbed the car keys, which were next to the Chatsworth woman, and drove off. Moments later, he pushed her out of the open passenger-side door, Sgt. Dan Mastro said.

Keely was waiting for her two sisters, who were shopping at the Pic-N-Save. They exited the store just in time to watch their sister being shoved out of the car.

“I saw a car speeding and heard the brakes making a screeching noise, the way they do in the movies, and then I realized it was my car,” said Doris Payson, Keely’s sister. “I thought, ‘Oh my God, where is my sister?’ and just then I saw he had tossed her out of the car.

“It was awful. . . . I’ll never forget it,” said Payson, as she broke into tears during a telephone interview.

Payson said she and her other sister rushed over to Keely, who was lying in a pool of blood.

“It was hell on wheels,” said Keely’s other sister, who asked that her name not be used. “It was a nightmare that we’ll never forget.”

Keely, who underwent hip surgery Friday morning at a Los Angeles hospital, was in stable condition, said one of her sisters, who described her as a frail woman who weighs less than 100 pounds.

Police said Keely identified the youth as her assailant from mug shots. Police arrested the teen-ager about 5:30 a.m. at his Canoga Park home, Mastro said. The youth confessed to officers that he had stolen the car, which was later recovered near a Pacoima shopping center.

“It’s appalling that he would do something like that to anybody, no less a 73-year-old woman,” Mastro said.

Price said the youth’s brother was suspected of stealing a car from the same parking lot on Feb. 3. Detectives had asked the district attorney’s office to file charges against the 14-year-old boy in connection with the theft because he was caught driving the stolen car a week later.

But Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office, said joy-riding charges were not initially filed against the boy because prosecutors at the time were unable to determine from police whether the youth was the driver or a passenger when the car was recovered.

Gibbons said the boy was released from custody because no charges were filed within 48 hours of his arrest, as required by law.

The youth was subsequently charged with joy-riding when police notified the district attorney’s office that he was found driving the stolen car, Gibbons said.