One accident, two victims

Minutes after a fatal car accident, Adrienne Braxton, a 33-year-old nurse’s assistant, was carjacked as she tried to save the accident victim’s life.
The accident happened early one morning recently at the corner of Pico Boulevard and Western Avenue and Braxton was the only person who tried to assist the victim. “It’s just crazy. It’s like nobody wants to help each other anymore,” she said.
By the time she got to the man he was already dead. As if that situation wasn’t traumatic enough, the camera at the Pico Shell Gas Station caught a woman, identified as Deserie Guzman, stealing Braxton’s car as she tended to the victim. “This man is helpless… laying here…he’s laying here helpless and why would she think about doing something like that to me and I’m trying to help him,” said Braxton.
Braxton tried to stop Guzman by running back towards her car and holding on, but the driver continued on, dragging her a few feet and running over her with the back tire. She was knocked unconscious, sustained three broken ribs and a sprained ankle.
“I didn’t really think about it. I just reacted,” she said. The car belonged to Braxton’s father who gave it to her before he died a couple of months ago.
Braxton did get her father’s car back and Guzman has been charged with carjacking and hit-and-run. Police said as Guzman fled the gas station, she hit a parked car. Guzman remains in jail with bail set at $100,000. Braxton was reportedly relieved that she got the car back but still is upset about the life that she wasn’t able to save.