A Rhode Island man is facing charges after graphic video shows him slamming a woman to the ground after a car crash Friday morning, authorities said.
Twenty-six year old Gladior Kwesiah of Pawtucket is charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (paving causing serious bodily injury), malicious destruction of property, and operating a motor vehicle without a license.
Officers responding to multiple 911 calls about a motor vehicle crash at the intersection of Route 1 and Route 1A around 8:50 a.m. found a small 31-year-old woman in the roadway, crying, bleeding from the head and in obvious pain. according to the Attleboro Police Department.
It was later determined that the woman was 6 feet tall and weighed 110 pounds.
The responding officer says he saw a much larger man, later identified as Kwesiah, standing over the woman.
The victim, Hailea Soares, spoke to Boston 25 News Friday evening after leaving the hospital.
Soares, a mother of two, said the incident started when Kwesiah accosted her in a fit of road rage along Route 1, eventually slamming on the brakes and forcing her to hit his car.
When Soares got out of her truck, she said Kwesiah tried to hold her phone away from her and threw her to the ground. A witness' video then appears to show Soares trying to fight Kwesiah before slamming her head into the pavement.
“When a man almost picks you up over his head and throws you to the ground, yeah, you start to wonder if you're going to wake up after that,” Soares said. “I turned around and there was blood dripping on my hands. And then I realized: I couldn't move, I couldn't stand.”
Witnesses told police that Kwesiah banged on the roof of the victim's car and pulled her out of the car. The two began yelling at each other when the woman reportedly said, “Leave me alone!” before the suspect struck the victim with his body.
Soares was transported to Sturdy Memorial Hospital with a broken knee, a broken foot, a significant injury to her eye socket and a head wound that required eight stitches.
Kwesiah was arraigned in Attleboro District Court.
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