Oakland woman attacked near home leaves family shaken
An Oakland man said two people in his immediate family have been the victims of separate violent attacks. The latest happened near his home, leaving him feeling like it's time to move on from the city.
Every night after dinner Alan Wang and his wife usually take a walk through their Oakland Hills neighborhood. But on Monday night, Alan Wang said his wife went on their walk alone and that's when the unthinkable happened.
"He brandished what looked like a sword or some type of long stick and he was yelling, 'Hey, I need to ask you a question.' But of course he wasn't trying to ask questions. He was truly just trying to hit her and he ended up hitting here three or four times," said Wang.
Wang said just a few hundred feet from their house, his wife walked past a car with two people inside. That's when he says a young man jumped out of the car and attacked her.
"She came this way, I think over here, and he hit her and then she went that way trying to evade him and he hit her again, two more times. And then that's when the neighbor saw from the top what was going on and started screaming, and she came down to help my wife and then the kid ran back down the street into the car and they sped down," said Wang.
He said his wife was cut on her arm and her back. They called the police, but the suspects were gone before officers arrived.
Now, all they can think is what if it happens again.
"My wife was thinking about taking my 6-year-old daughter on the walk yesterday, what if she was there for that. Right, we have elderly people that are on this street, what if they were on the walk," said Wang.
Sadly, he said it isn't even the first time someone in his family has been attacked in Oakland. He said his mother was brutally beaten by strangers in the middle of the road just two months ago.
"A car had stopped her on the street while she was walking. One kid got out and started pushing her around trying to find money. He didn't find anything. The other driver came out and said 'Did you find anything?' He said no and then they beat her," said Wang.
He said the two attacks have him fed up. He no longer feels safe in his own city, even in his own home.
"It's just there's so much crime going on. It's, you kind of go into Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, this basic need of safety is missing. There's no safety in this city," said Wang.
He said it has given him no choice but to move. He and his wife are already looking at places in other areas, and he's hoping to get his mother out of the city too.