Woman Pepper Sprays Family After Intentionally Crashing Into Car On Peninsula Road: Police

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, CA — Police arrested a woman Saturday in South San Francisco in a road rage incident after she intentionally struck another car and then pepper sprayed a family inside before fleeing the scene, police said.

At around 5:45 p.m. on Saturday, the Palo Alto Police Department received a call that a road rage incident had just happened on the 700 block of Embarcadero Road in Palo Alto.

A man in his 20s said he was traveling eastbound on Embarcadero Road with his family, and he was trying to change lanes to make a left turn.

The man told police a woman, later identified as 26-year-old Mahima Yaqoob of Lakeport, driving a gray Nissan Sentra would not let them over and kept accelerating to prevent them from changing lanes.

Police said once they were at a stop light, the woman driving the Nissan made a u-turn and struck the family's car.

Police said Yaqoob then exited her car and threatened the family. Officers said she struck the man with her keys and pepper sprayed him. A passenger in her 20s in the family's car got out and was also pepper sprayed, police said.

The victim's four children, ages 9, 4, 4, and 1, were also in the car and exposed to the pepper spray, police said.

Yaqoob fled the scene before police arrived.

Officers said they found Yaqoob, arrested her in South San Francisco on Sunday and booked her into the Santa Clara County Main Jail for six counts of assault with a deadly weapon and unlawful use of tear gas. Yaqoob was also booked for four counts of child endangerment, two counts of criminal threats, one count of criminal threats and for driving on a suspended license, police said.