Boy, 14, arrested after carjacking, punching 72-year-old man unloading groceries in San Jose: police
SAN JOSE, Calif. (KTVU) - San Jose police have arrested a 14-year-old boy who officers said repeatedly punched a 72-year-old man and carjacked his Nissan Sentra as the man was unloading groceries in his driveway. The attack was captured on surveillance video.
The teen, whose name was not released because he is a minor, was booked into Santa Clara County Juvenile Hall on charges of carjacking, robbery, assault with a deadly weapon, and elder abuse.
Police said the teen came up to Hector Estrada about 10 a.m. on Wednesday in the 3200 block of Coldwater Drive with a gun and demanded he give him his keys. Estrada, who had just returned from Costco, refused and the teen grabbed them and hopped into the Nissan, police said. Estrada tried to pull the teen out of the car, and the teen punched the elderly man “multiple times,” police said.
The teen got back in the Nissan and drove away.
"He jumped in the car. Then I reached in there and grabbed him and I tried to pull him back. He punched me and broke my glasses. That's how I got all these cuts. Then I started bleeding so I couldn't see anymore," said Estrada.
About 10 minutes later, San Jose police received a call of a hit and run involving the Estrada’s Nissan near Story Road at McGuinness Drive. The teen allegedly ran a red light in the intersection and collided with a Dodge Challenger. The teen ran from the scene, and a witness ran after him and tried to stop him, police said. But the teen pulled out his gun and the witness stopped chasing him.He was arrested shortly afterward.
Estrada, a retired plumber, former Little League coach and great-grandfather, was bruised and scratched, but is otherwise OK. His surveillance camera was just installed a week prior to the attack.
The driver and passenger inside the Dodge Challenger sustained non-life threatening injuries. The driver was transported to a local hospital.
The teen cannot be prosecuted in adult court, under SB 1391, a new law that went into effect last fall that barred 14- and 15-year-olds from being tried as adults.
Previously, there were some allowances for adult prosecution of these teens that age for serious violent crimes, if a judge deemed it appropriate. Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen has challenged the constitutionality of the new law, arguing that it undermines the judicial discretion that was codified in Proposition 57, the Mercury News reported.