Video shows bat-wielding auto shop employee attacking, threatening NorCal street vendor
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- An auto shop worker is in jail, accused of attacking a street vendor in an incident that was caught on video in Northern California.
The latest incident happened Saturday morning in the 1400 block of Old Bayshore Highway in San Jose. An employee of Intex Auto Parts shop allegedly attacked Carlos Sanchez and his pickup truck with a baseball bat, as seen in a video posted to social media.
A man who works at the San Jose auto shop has been arrested for harassing and threatening Sanchez, a street vendor who set up outside the business on Saturday morning.
A video taken by Sanchez, and shared on TikTok shows the employee of Intex Auto Parts carrying a bat while demanding Sanchez leave the area.
WARNING: The video may be disturbing to watch for some viewers.
"Get out of here," the man wearing an "Intex Auto Parts" sweatshirt tells Sanchez repeatedly while swinging the bat. "This is illegal...you are criminal."
The man proceeded to knock over the Sanchez' cooler and other products. At one point he threatened to use lighter fluid.
"Bring it," he says, arguing that they are on his property.
Sanchez and another unidentified man are heard on the video repeatedly telling the man to calm down.
"Take it easy...take it easy," Sanchez says. "This is a public area, my friend."
The auto parts employee, however, continues to lash out at Sanchez. He's seen getting inside Sanchez's car and damaging it with the bat. He then appears to make physical contact with Sanchez.
Sanchez is the father of a family of four. He has been cooking at that corner for the past six months, earning about $50 a day. He says has to come to work every day so he has money to feed his family. He even showed up on Sunday, the day after he was attacked.
"I never thought that this would happen, and, of course, I was scared," Sanchez told our sister station KGO-TV in Spanish.
He says he was not on the auto shop's property and never interfered with their customers.
San Jose police arrested the man, who they identified as a 43-year-old, only giving his last name of Ho. He is being charged with assault with a deadly weapon and attempted carjacking.
"The suspect also tried to move the victim's vehicle by force, which led to an attempted carjacking charge as well," the police tweeted.
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They said the 43-year-old man is currently booked into jail.
Sanchez says he doesn't know the man or why he attacked him.
"This guy is just super brave. I mean he showed up today, which is really a brave act. Keeping in mind, that he was just attacked with a bat," says Flor Martinez, the CEO of Celebration Nation. The organization helps to educate and advocate for the legal rights of Latino communities across California.
She's glad that Sanchez is speaking out.
"He filed a police report, the attacker is now in jail," says Martinez. "I feel like our Latino-Indigenous community has always been overseen and overlooked when it comes to the struggles they face."
Sanchez's video has since gone viral after police encouraged him to post it to help identify the attacker.
Sanchez's friend, Erik Lopez, shared the video on TikTok.
Lopez told KGO-TV that he and Sanchez both sell chicken and BBQ ribs every Saturday and Sunday at different locations around San Jose.
As the video has been shared online, several people have flooded Intex Auto Parts shop's Yelp page with negative reviews.
The auto shop did not return respond to requests for comment.
