Cops: Carjacker Dies After Beating Up Senior

You might say it was karma; Shirlene Hernandez would not
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 19, 2022 10:06 AM CDT
Cops: Carjacker Dies After Beating Up Senior
Shirlene Hernandez   (GoFundMe)

A Texas man beat up a 72-year-old great-grandmother so as to take her car, only to die later in a crash, according to San Antonio police. Shirlene Hernandez, who was left with a nasty black eye and bruising covering half of her face, was assaulted as she headed into a gas station to a pick up her daily Diet Coke on her way to work around 8am on April 12. The assailant struck her several times in the face while stealing her car keys, per KABB/WOAI. He also "hit her with the door, badly bruising her face," Hernandez's granddaughter, Helen Garcia, tells KXXV.

The assailant, who'd earlier left the Texas Vista Medical Center, escaped with Hernandez's car despite three men attempting to tackle him, according to the outlets. Police say the car was later found wrecked on Interstate 35, with the deceased carjacker inside. "There's a lot of people who would say what goes around comes around—karma," Hernandez tells KABB/WOAI. "I did not think that." Indeed, she says she was "really sad" to hear of the man's death. Now Hernandez is left without a car, which is a problem as she has to drive across San Antonio to get to her job.

"I just don't want to quit working, and so I've got to somehow get another car," Hernandez tells the outlet. Luckily for her, hundreds of people have donated to a GoFundMe page started by Garcia. Despite an initial goal of $5,000, it's raised more than $23,000 as of this writing. "We are in awe and so thankful for the outpouring of love and support," Garcia writes on the page. "I just hope that if this situation happens to anybody else, that somebody will step forward, leap forward, run forward, whatever and help the person that it's happening to," Hernandez adds, per KABB/WOAI. (More carjacking stories.)

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