A South Bay mother managed to record the moment a knife-wielding man attacked her car while she was at a gas station in San Jose.
Isabel Cruz said she just paid for gas at a Quik Stop on Lucretia Avenue when the man, who was previously yelling obscenities while at a nearby bus stop, came up behind her car, punched a window and then slashed a tire with a large knife.
"I’m so thankful I actually rolled up my window," Cruz said. "If I wouldn’t have, I don’t know what could have happened to me. I don’t know what his intentions were."
Cruz pulled out her phone just in time to capture the attack on camera.
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"If that window was rolled down and didn’t have that layer of protection between her and this individual, who knows what could have happened," San Jose police Sgt. Christian Camarillo said.
Cruz called police and posted the video on social media. A beat officer recognized the man and went back to the area the next day looking for him. After a short foot chase, police arrested the man, who was identified as 35-year-old Eduardo Sanchez, a transient with a long and sometimes violent criminal history.
During the chase, police said Sanchez threw the knife.
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"I wouldn’t even classify what he was using as a knife," Camarillo said. "It looks like a machete when you look at it. It's probably 12 inches long."
Cruz was left with a damaged window, a bill for a new tire and lots of rattled nerves, but she's grateful to be alive.
"Honestly, the price on that doesn’t compare with my life," she said. "I’m so grateful he damaged just the vehicle and not myself."
