A DoorDash driver thought fast when it came to intervening in an alleged domestic violence incident where he helped a woman escape her aggressor. Twenty-year-old Angelo Montoya was on his way to pick up a food order to deliver when he encountered what appeared to be a violent altercation happening on Interstate 8 at Sunset Cliffs in the Ocean Beach neighborhood of San Diego, California. When he heard the woman screaming for help and begging him, “Please don’t leave me,” he decided he had to act. Montoya returned to the scene and intervened.
The DoorDasher thought him stepping in would calm things, but it only made matters worse. “The aggressor starts targeting me, telling me to mind my business," he recalled. "I’m like, ‘No, she’s yelling for help. Back away from her, please. Back away or I’ll call the cops.’”
Montoya said the man then approached his car and began to attack him. “He punched me through the window on my neck,” he said. “That’s when I knew this is way more than I expected.”
While calling 911, he told the woman to get in his car and the two fled the scene. But the aggressor followed them and ended up cutting off the DoorDasher, getting out his car, and charging towards the car with Montoya and the woman.
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The DoorDasher backed away and then drove toward the man, who jumped onto the hood of Montoya's Tesla before falling onto the road. He and the woman drove away but continued to be chased down by the man. Eventually, the guy crashed into the left side of the Tesla, causing the car to collide with other parked cars. He then fled the scene, but was later arrested and charged with assault with a deadly weapon. While the woman walked away without any serious injuries, Montoya was hospitalized with minor injuries.
If you or someone you know has been the victim of domestic abuse, you can find help and support at DVIS.org, the National Domestic Abuse Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or by contacting your local women's shelter domesticshelters.org.