I would be curious what a person is supposed to do in her situation. She had put her bags into the back of the car and was getting in her car when this guy came running at her and shoved her. I don’t think she had a chance to kick or respond at all. There was no struggle. He just shoved, jumped in and took off.
I have two small girls and can barely breathe when I think about this. I’ve had to turn our talk radio off because I can’t bare to listen to it anymore.
I don’t mean to say anything about her personally. Just that we can know, we can plan, we can intend, and in the event all of that may not do us any good. I’m sick too.
My friends and I were speculating as to whether he may have knocked her out when he shoved her in the car. Her friends (or family, not sure which) said she wouldn’t have gone without a fight. I guess we’ll find out when the “details” are revealed.
I can think of two issues that need to be addressed.
The first is situational awareness. Color-coding is used to describe the degree of mental awareness that one is exercising with respect to their surroundings and possible threats. "Condition White", I believe, describes a person who is completely distracted by their own activities and wouldn't notice an attacker waiting nearby for an opportunity to pounce.
The second issue is that people need to act on the information that they get when they ARE aware of a potential threat. People will fail to act on a threat because they fear giving offense, being rude, or are embarrassed by their own, possibly mistaken, assessment of risk.
If the attacked girl had observed her surroundings carefully before unlocking her car, she might have spotted the attacker. He might just have been "loitering" without apparent cause, but that should be enough to cause the girl to take some evasive action.
As another poster commented, she could have thrown her car keys away from her so that her own car could not be used to abduct her. The distance to the attacker's car then becomes critical ground on which she needs to fight.