Editor’s Note: This article has been edited to correct the date of the incident.
Video captured the terrifying moment a Torrance man was violently slammed into by a driver in broad daylight.
The victim, Ken Teshima, a 66-year-old grandfather, is releasing the video in hopes the suspect will be located and arrested.
Video of the incident was captured on July 29 around noon at an office complex parking lot in Torrance.
The suspect is seen speeding up a gray sedan straight into Teshima and knocking him over onto the sidewalk.
“I went flying and I fell here,” Teshima recalled. “He was out to kill me. He hit me so hard, as fast as his car could go. Fortunately, when I hit the sign here, his car hit the post and it stopped his car. But I kept going and fell over there.”
The sudden impact knocked Teshsima over and he hit his head on the concrete below.
“It was pretty hard,” he said of the impact. “But it could have been harder if I didn’t brace myself and turn sideways.”
The incident left Teshima with a cracked skull, internal bleeding in the torso and other injuries as he was hospitalized in the intensive care unit.
Teshima is a certified public accountant in Torrance. About six months ago, he spotted the suspect sleeping in his car while parked in the office lot. The suspect allegedly told Teshima he was homeless but worked nearby.
“I said, ‘It’s OK for you to stay here, but don’t make trouble,’” Teshima recalls telling the suspect, a large man possibly in his 40s.
But then, things took a turn for the worse.
“He started pooping on the ground, making trouble,” Teshima said.
That’s when he finally confronted the suspect and asked him to leave the property. The suspect became enraged and tried to start a fistfight, Teshima said.
When Teshima refused to engage, the suspect eventually walked away. Teshima thought the situation had de-escalated, but unfortunately, he was wrong.
“I thought everything was going to be OK but it wasn’t,” he said. Moments later as Teshima is walking across the parking lot, the suspect is seen running him over with his car.
Teshima is thankful he survived and believes his extensive martial arts training helped him quickly react to the impact and momentum of the car slamming into him.
“God’s watching over me,” he said. “He didn’t want me to die. I’ve got a reason to be here. I have to thank the Lord for that.”
Torrance police confirm a report was filed for assault with a deadly weapon and hit-and-run, but no further information was available. Teshima provided KTLA with a picture of the suspect and his vehicle in hopes someone might recognize him.
Anyone with information on the case is asked to contact the Torrance Police Department at 310-618-5641.