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Man Faces Attempted Murder Charge After Running Woman Down With Car

SANTA ANA (CBSLA)  --  An Orange county man is facing serious charges -- including attempted murder -- after he allegedly stole a woman's bag and then ran her over with his vehicle.

KCAL9's Michele Gile spoke to the victim's devastated family.

Officials said the suspect intentionally ran the woman down.

The woman's had a series of skin grafts over one side of her body, according to her brother and sister.

"I can't close my eyes without seeing her on the ground," said the victim's sister. "It's bad."

The video from the incident is bad -- and disturbing. The Santa Ana secretary is shown in the middle of the street when the vehicle plowed into her Monday afternoon.

She survived but her family says she was badly injured.

"I've never seen my family like this before," said the victim's brother, Andrew, "My mom, she can't sleep. She's just being at the hospital as much as she can. And I've been there since Monday and I haven't left my sister's side."

Police said the incident began a week ago when the suspect -- parolee Arturo Suarez, 25, -- went into the victim's engineering company.

In the lobby, he allegedly stole a diaper bag with a wallet and $1,000 in equipment inside.

When Suarez' vehicle was spotted again along the street the victim's sister called police. She also parked behind him, trying to block his vehicle.

Another employee confronted Suarez about what he'd done.

"And he got nervous," said Keith Fujimoto, "And he said, 'well, I don't know what you're talking about and I gotta leave.' And I said, 'I don't think that's a good idea. Because she's on the phone with the police department. And they're coming right now, so you might want to stay here until they come and you can straighten this out.' And then he said, 'nah, I gotta leave.'"

Moments later, officials said Suarez came barrelling down the street. He hit the victim and dragged her about 100 feet. Police said he stopped for a few moments -- but then took off.

"My sister was standing in the middle of the street here watching us," said the victim's sister. Alicia. "So when he took off down the street he didn't stop and by that time she realized he wasn't going to stop and she put her palms out. She tried to get out of the way but he accelerated. And he hit her."

Officials say Suarez has a long rap sheet. He was arrested on Tuesday.

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