A New Mexico woman was given a choice by a man who hijacked the vehicle in which she was a passenger.
"He said, 'You can either jump out or I'll kill you,'" Karina Fernandez told KOB.
Fernandez was sitting in a car early Sunday morning while her boyfriend, Tim McDaniel, stopped at a gasoline station/convenience store for snacks, the television station reported.
That's when a man police identified as 22-year-old Christian Lorenzo Herrera jumped into the driver's seat and sped off, KOB reported.
“I heard the door slam I look over and it’s not my boyfriend,” Fernandez told the television station.
Fernandez pleaded with the man to stop and let her out. That's when Herrera allegedly issued his ultimatum. She jumped out of the car and fractured a toe, but she was otherwise unharmed, KOB reported.
McDaniel called police and paramedics took Fernandez to the hospital. Then he got in a family member's car, tracking his phone, which was still in the stolen vehicle, the television station reported.
"I actually had a location. I had the car in front of me and they (Albuquerque police) said there's nothing they can do," McDaniel told KOB.
McDaniel then spotted a Bernalillo County Sheriff’s deputy and waved him down. Deputies, after unsuccessfully using spike strips, got Herrera to stop by ramming the vehicle, the television station reported.
According to court documents, Herrera was out on supervised release after serving time for armed bank robbery, according to KOB.
Fernandez was just grateful that her injuries were not more severe.
“If I wouldn’t have taken initiative, if my boyfriend wouldn’t have taken initiative (Herrera) wouldn’t be in jail. He would just be roaming around and I would have been dead,” Fernandez told the television station.
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