A suspect linked to a hit-and-run incident which was triggered by road rage, leaving a man injured in the Oakland Hills last August 8 was arrested by the police, a statement shared by Officer Kim Armstead on Twitter said.
In an interview with KPIX, Piedmont Pines residents Jonathan Sanler and his family claimed that they heard an argument between people outside their home close to the Aiken and Girvin Drive intersection at about 5:50 p.m. that day.
Sanler came out to investigate and has managed to capture a video through a phone. It showed a silver Chevy Bolt crashing down the road before making a turn and made its way on three people near a gray SUV in the next street.
In the video, Joseph Lax of Pleasanton, his girlfriend, Allyson Amaral, and her sister can be seen running away from the vehicle, which appears to miss them by a few inches. Amaral and her sister retreat inside the SUV, while Lax, the driver, checks to make sure they’re OK. Sanler can be heard asking Lax if he obtained the other driver’s license plate number when the Chevy Bolt shows up again, barreling down the road from the opposite direction.
“He’s coming back, careful!” Sanler warns Lax in the video.
Lax turns around and tries to run away, but the vehicle manages to strike him at an angle, causing him to fall and sustain bruising as well as a fractured tailbone.
“He had murderous intent at all times until he eventually hit me,” Lax told KPIX.
Amaral explained the drivers got into an argument after the cars nearly collided.
“He almost hit us because we were going around a blind spot and he rolled his window down and thought we were the ones in the wrong,” she told KPIX, as reported by SFGate.
Sanler alerted authorities and passed on the license plate number. The suspect was charged by the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office Thursday, though a name was not released.
