Carjacker beats up 72-year-old, takes car, only to die in crash, police say

SAN ANTONIO (KABB/WOAI) - A San Antonio great-grandmother is recovering after a brutal carjacking this week.

She’s lucky not to have been more seriously injured, but her assailant later crashed her car and died.

Shirlene Hernandez, 72, was on her way to a Shell gas station Tuesday morning, something she does every day, to get a Diet Coke.

On her way inside, a man grabbed her, hitting her several times in the face in a tussle to take her keys. Hernandez said despite three men trying to tackle the attacker, he still got away with her car.

Not long after, police found her car on the interstate, totaled – and with the suspected carjacker dead inside.

“There’s a lot of people who would say what goes around comes around, karma. I did not think that; the only thing I got (was) really sad because he had died,” Hernandez said. “Now granted, he had hurt me, but the Lord saw fit to take him out of his misery.”

Hernandez said she is still sore and beat up with a bruised face, but she is mostly OK. However, she is left without a vehicle.

Despite her age, she still works every day and needs a vehicle to get her there.

San Antonio residents created a GoFundMe page to help Hernandez buy a replacement car. With an initial goal of $5,000, the page has raised nearly triple that amount as of Monday afternoon.

Copyright 2022 KABB/WOAI via CNN Newsource. All rights reserved.