Senator recounts being attacked in broad daylight
By Alexandra Meeks, CNN
Former US Sen. Barbara Boxer of California was a victim of assault and theft Monday in the Jack London Square neighborhood of Oakland, her office said.
“The assailant pushed her in the back, stole her cell phone and jumped in a waiting car,” a spokesperson from Boxer’s office said. “She is thankful that she was not seriously injured.”
The assault and robbery occurred Monday at 1:15 p.m. local time in the 300 block of 3rd Street, the Oakland Police Department confirmed to CNN.
The suspect “forcefully took” Boxer’s cell phone and fled the area in a nearby waiting vehicle, police said.
Boxer, 80, said she was “shook up” following the assault.
“He pushed me very hard… and before I could follow him, he grabbed my phone,” Boxer told CNN affiliate KPIX. “I’m not physically hurt at all, I’m just shook up.”
Boxer said she believes the suspect did not know who she was and described him as someone under 18 who fled the scene in a black sedan, according to KPIX.
“I was yelling at the kid ‘Why would you do this to a grandma?’ but he could care less,” Boxer said in the interview.
This incident is currently being investigated by the police department’s robbery section, police said. The department is offering up to $2,000 as a reward leading to an arrest in the case.
The former Democratic senator served from 1993 to 2017, when she was succeeded by now-Vice President Kamala Harris.
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