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Woman, 77, OK after driver hits her in Castro Valley church parking lot

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Updated  February 22, 2023 5:35am PST
Castro Valley
KTVU FOX 2

Woman speaks out after man deliberately hit her with his car

A Castro Valley hit-and-run victim is speaking out, but in good spirits after surveillance camera caught a driver using his car to deliberately hit her as she used her walker in a church parking lot. She's in good spirits, but her injuries are painful and she's in physical therapy.

CASTRO VALLEY, Calif. - Anna "Kate" Leland is being treated at a skilled nursing facility after surviving a horrific hit-and-run crash in Castro Valley earlier this month.

On the night of Feb. 11, surveillance cameras at the parking lot of First Presbyterian Church show a driver in a white Nissan Altima nearly backing into Leland, who was on her way there to eat dinner. 

Words were exchanged between her and the driver.

"It was something along the lines of it would be nice if you paid attention to pedestrians," Leland recalled in an interview on Tuesday. 

Leland said she couldn't hear what the driver said to her since she suffers from hearing loss in her right ear.

Heinous hit-and-run attack on homeless woman caught on camera

Surveillance video shows a hit-and-run in Alameda County, where a man deliberately hits a homeless woman with his vehicle. KTVU's Amber Lee spoke with a witness from this Castro Valley incident.

But she said she recalls vividly that the driver circled back and deliberately targeted her.  

"He hit the side of my walker," Leland said. "My walker went. I lost my walker I ended up on his hood. Was I scared? Not at that moment it wasn't until after I was just reacting at that point. I was in survivor mode

The 77-year-old said she's suffering from injuries to her knee, lacerations to her head and left heel. Sometimes her pain is an 8 out of 10. 

She said she considers herself lucky to have people who work at the church witness the hit-and-run and come to her rescue.

She is grateful to be alive.

"I've been working on forgiving him," Leland said. "I'm not quite there yet. I think the most appropriate lesson for him would be anger management learning to control himself, self-control." 

The Alameda County Sheriff's Office said that so far, there are no arrests in the case. The anonymous tipline is 510-667-3622. 

There is a fundraising effort underway to help Leiland with her recovery. Click here to donate.

Amber Lee is a reporter with KTVU. Email Amber at Amber.Lee@Fox.com or text/leave message at 510-599-3922. Follow her on Facebook @AmberKTVU,  Instagram @AmberKTVU  or Twitter @AmberKTVU