Man Clinging to Car Is Killed as Thief Drags Him and Then Runs Over Him

SANTA ANA —  A Long Beach man who grabbed the passenger door of his car as it was being stolen was killed Thursday when the driver--a woman he had been riding with only moments before--dragged him about 200 hundred feet before running over him, police said.

The victim, whose name was not released pending notification of his relatives, died at the scene of the 5:20 p.m. incident in the 1300 block of West 21st Street.

Police said the man had apparently driven to a friend’s house on the street accompanied by two or three women. When he got of his red Chevrolet Cavalier to knock on his friend’s door, one of the passengers moved into the driver’s seat and started to back out of the driveway, Santa Ana Police Sgt. Joe Esther said.

“He ran back to the car and tried to stop them. He grabbed onto the door of the passenger side,” Esther said. “He was hanging on for a considerable distance . . . then he went under the car.”

When officers arrived, they found the man sprawled on the asphalt in a pool of blood. A shoe and clothing littered the road for nearly a hundred yards.

Marlene Martinez, 13, of Santa Ana said she watched in horror as the victim was being dragged down the street.

“It was scary . . . he was just holding onto the car,” said Marlene, who witnessed the incident with her mother as they drove eastbound--opposite the Chevrolet--on 21st Street.

Esther said investigators were “treating this as a homicide.” The women remain at large.

Police said they had not determined the relationship between the victim and the occupants in his car, or why the occupants stole the man’s car and dragged his body down the street.