Witnesses: Woman driving with man on hood after hit-and-run seemed lethargic

ROSWELL, Ga. — Witnesses tell Channel 2 Action News a woman who drove two miles with a man clinging to the hood of her car appeared dazed and lethargic.

Roswell police were still searching for the driver Monday after the April 13 incident on Holcomb Bridge Road. Dry cleaner Elton Kim told Channel 2's Mike Petchenik the woman backed into his wife's truck and he was attempting to stop her, when she suddenly accelerated into him, forcing him to jump onto the hood to avoid being hit.

"Very dangerous," Kim told Petchenik on Friday.

Kim was able to escape when the woman stopped at a red light.

Jim Meyer told Petchenik he was driving down Holcomb Bridge Road when he saw Kim standing in front of the woman's Ford Fusion. When she took off, he started recording the incident on his cell phone.

"That was the only reason I took it," said Meyer. "I figured they're gonna need this on video to believe this story."

Meyer couldn't believe what he was seeing either.

"It surprised me obviously," he said. "I wouldn't have expected somebody to take off with a guy on his hood, that's for sure."

Meyer told Petchenik he drove right up next to the woman and noticed she seemed to be concentrating more on the road than she was on Kim.

"She was stone faced, and no emotion whatsoever," said Meyer.

Meyer said he initially saw Kim on the phone and assumed it was with police, which is why he could be heard asking Kim if he'd called police. Meyer said when Kim yelled for him to call police, he stopped recording the incident and called 911.

Witness Brian Nixon and his wife Heather were leaving a birthday party at a nearby park when he said they saw the car driving toward them with Kim hanging from the hood.

"At first we thought it was just some teenager hood-surfing or something," he said. "We could see the fear in the man's face at that point and realized this wasn't just some kids playing around. This was something serious."

After the woman made a U-turn, Nixon told Petchenik he followed the woman and when she stopped at a red light, he and several other cars boxed her in.

"At that point we got out of the car and told her the cops had been called," he said. "My wife swung her driver side door open, and honestly I think if it wasn't for her having a seat belt on, she probably would have gotten yanked out of the car at that point."

Nixon said the woman backed up and was able to maneuver back onto the road to escape. Nixon said the woman appeared to be intoxicated, but he wasn't clear from his vantage point.

"She seemed rather lethargic. She just seemed out of it, like this situation just wasn't clicking with her that this was happening," he said. "She just didn't seem right at all."

WSBTV