A California woman’s ability to think on her feet helped her escape a potentially deadly carjacking in Oakland.
The woman was driving along Skyline Boulevard at 8:30 a.m. on July 21, when a white Dodge Charger cut her off, and two suspects quickly exited the vehicle.
Terrifying dashcam footage from inside the victim’s SUV captured the moment the muscle car pulled in front of her and angled their vehicle to create a blockade with the median.
The male driver of Dodge can be seen brandishing a gun as he sprinted towards the victim’s car.
Meanwhile, a second suspect wearing a black ski mask, who she believes to be a woman, emerged from the passenger side of the white Charger and headed toward the passenger door of the victim’s vehicle.
Their intended target said that she believed the driver of the other car fired off three rounds to scare her, but it turns out he was rapping on her driver’s side window.
As he was tapping, the female suspect tried to yank open the passenger side door, which is when the woman knew she was in serious danger and shifted into high gear.
“I punched it, I went around their car, and I drove away as fast as I could trying to get some place safe,” the unidentified woman told Fox 11.
Footage from her dashcam displayed how she let out a primal scream of terror as she squeezed her car through a small gap between the Charger and the road median.
The suspects could be seen running back to their car and hopping in from her rear dashcam as the woman sped away.
The caught up to her SUV as she was tearing down a hill, but the woman employed defensive driving maneuvers, including not allowing them to pass her and blaring the horn.
“I was driving fast and hard, and I wouldn’t let them get up next to me,” she said about her evasive driving.
The woman told the local news outlet that she has been an area resident for forty years and is “concerned for her community.”
While authorities have yet to make any arrests, there is speculation that this suspect may be linked to other carjackings in the East Oakland Hills.
The woman said that she feels “very fortunate,” about how the situation turned out, but will be taking a different route for the foreseeable future.
