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Minivan driver rams man in Emeryville parking lot

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Published  January 6, 2023 10:25pm PST
Crime and Public Safety
KTVU FOX 2

Man says woman in minivan ran into him on purpose in Emeryville

Emeryville police are searching for a woman who intentionally rammed her minivan into a man outside a store at a busy shopping center.

Emeryville - Emeryville police are searching for a woman who intentionally rammed her minivan into a man outside a store at a busy shopping center.

The victim, Krzysztof Sobieszczanski, 67, told KTVU on Friday that he suffered a 10-inch gash on his head, road rash and bruises on his leg.

"It's very difficult for me to move now, and the head, this is [an] open scar," Sobieszczanski said.

It happened at about 6:30 p.m. Thursday in the parking of the Nordstrom Rack on Emery Street.

Sobieszczanski, a home remodeler, said he was parking his Toyota Tacoma when he noticed a woman in a minivan also maneuvering in the parking lot. He says he decided to take another spot to give her more room. 

He got out of his pickup truck but then realized he forgot his phone. He went back to his truck to grab it and was walking toward the store when he realized that the woman in the minivan was speeding toward him. 

"Then she hit me. It was very fast," he said.

Emeryville police are looking for the driver of an older white Dodge Caravan or Plymouth Voyager.

Why the woman hit him is unclear. He says he didn't steal any parking space from her, and the two never argued or spoke to each other. 

"I was not [in] her way," he said. "Maybe she was rushed to go in some place, I don't know."

His daughter Alexandra Santos said, "It's crazy. A millisecond difference and my dad wouldn't have survived."

Santos says there's no doubt the woman hit her father on purpose.

"It was definitely unprovoked," she said. "She tried to look for my dad. She intentionally came to my dad and hit him."

Sobieszczanski says the woman who hit him is a menace behind the wheel.

"In the parking lot, you cannot drive like crazy," he said. "I mean, you cannot go, come on, because it wasn't only me [in] the parking lot, there [was] many people going through."

The woman could potentially face charges of assault with a deadly weapon and hit-and-run. Anyone who recognizes the minivan or knows the woman who was driving is asked to contact Emeryville police.