Carjacker fought off by victim

Estimated read time: Less than a minute

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

Police have a lot of questions as they investigate a woman's claims that she fought off a would-be carjacker.

Something happened in the parking lot at the Motel 6 at 200 West and 600 South on Tuesday afternoon at about 1:30. There are skid marks in the parking lot, and there's evidence that the victim's car knocked a hole in a wooden fence.

Police say the victim claims she had parked in the parking lot to do some work in the shade. She tells police that's when a man approached her, yelled at her, then threatened to kill her if she didn't give up her car.

She wasn't about to let that happen and tells police she fought with the man as he tried to get away. Detective Dennis McGowan said, "Ultimately she was able to reach in and activated the emergency brake and pulled the ignition keys out, which stopped the vehicle from moving."

McGowan said she then fought with the man to get her purse back. She took a couple of blows to the face in the process.

The suspect is identified as a white, male adult, about 5 feet 8 inches tall with brown hair and sideburns.

E-mail: mgiauque@ksl.com