On Tuesday, the Santa Rosa Police Department responded to a call concerning a violent assault following a car collision, resulting in the hospitalization of a 70-year-old man with notable facial injuries and pain in his lower back and left leg. After being hit by another car, the elderly Santa Rosa resident tracked down the white Lexus sedan involved and exchanged insurance information with the 26-year-old female driver, according to the Santa Rosa Police Department.
The situation took a dangerous turn when the driver made a phone call to Thomas Barajas, a 20-year-old Santa Rosa local, who arrived on the scene and engaged in a confrontation with the victim. Barajas forcibly seized the victim's phone and threw it away to prevent emergency calls and attempted to attack him with a screwdriver. The victim managed to defend himself by wrestling the screwdriver away, but Barajas continued to assault him with kicks and punches before fleeing with the female driver.
The victim, who managed to drive himself home after the assault, later contacted the police, leading to the involvement of the SRPD Violent Crimes Investigations Team (VCI), as stated in the AlertSense report. The quick investigative work by SRPD officers and detectives allowed them to identify the female driver of the Lexus and track down Thomas Barajas the following day when he returned to his vehicle.
Barajas, who was detained without incident, has since been arrested and is facing charges including robbery, assault with a deadly weapon, and elder abuse, after the detectives located Barajas's unoccupied vehicle in the Santa Rosa area, learning about Barajas's identity and what vehicle he was driving in the process. The female driver has been cleared of involvement in the physical attack.
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