Target shopper flips man in wheelchair in brutal California parking fight, video shows
A fight over parking at a Northern California Target this month escalated into violence, leaving a man in a wheelchair injured on the ground, according to police.
On Tuesday, the Pleasant Hill Police Department in the San Francisco Bay Area released video footage on Facebook that captures the Jan. 11 fight at the superstore.
Police said the attack happened after the man in the wheelchair confronted a driver who was illegally parking in a spot reserved for those who have mobile impairments. Following that confrontation, the customer in the wheelchair went into the Target.
But at the customer service counter, a man came up to the man in the wheelchair and “demanded [he] go back out to the parking lot and apologize to his wife regarding the parking disagreement,” Lt. Scott Vermillion said in the Facebook post on the incident.
Not wanting more disagreement, the customer in the wheelchair declined, police said.
That’s when the man confronting him tried to “forcibly wheel the victim out of the store against his will,” Vermillion said.
The man in the wheelchair kept resisting, which is when the suspect “violently lifted the victim’s wheelchair from the side, throwing the victim down onto the floor,” according to Vermillion.
“He just got behind me and started to push me out of the store and I grabbed onto my wheels real tight and he picked me up in my wheelchair and he dumped me out of my wheelchair,” Phillip Kensler, the 52-year-old victim, told KRON in a TV interview.
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Police said officers were called to the store to investigate the assault and found the victim “being treated by medical personnel for an injury sustained during the” attack.
“My whole body fell down on top of my wrist,” Kensler told KRON. “They had to put a titanium plate and titanium screws.”
The accused attacker — identified by police as Jimmie Tiger of San Ramon — was arrested on Jan. 19 and charged with attempted kidnapping and assault, according to police.
Tiger, 32, was held at the Martinez Detention Facility but has posted bond, according to Bay City News. The fight was at the Target on Contra Costa Boulevard in Pleasant Hill.
“Thanks to witnesses, the victim was cared for until help arrived, and a partial license plate was obtained for a vehicle connected to Tiger,” Vermillion said. “The subsequent investigation determined the correct and complete license plate, and allowed Pleasant Hill Detectives to identify Jimmie Tiger as the suspect in this case.”
Scott Alonso, a spokesman for the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office, said Tiger pleaded not guilty to the charges, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
The Chronicle also reported that “Tiger declined comment on the charges when reached by phone Wednesday morning.”
“This case demonstrates the benefits we all experience when community members and law enforcement work together to find a quick resolution for cases such as this,” Lt. Vermillion said.
Kensler told KRON that he’s “glad that they got him because I don’t want him to hurt anyone else.”
