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Victim in South Salt Lake carjacking attempt reunites with good Samaritan

Posted at 6:24 PM, Apr 19, 2019
and last updated 2019-04-19 20:26:39-04

SOUTH SALT LAKE, Utah — The victim in an attempted carjacking earlier this week was reunited with the good Samaritan who prevented the crime.

South Salt Lake Police said they received a call around 6:20 p.m. Tuesday for an apparent carjacking right in front of the police department.

Joanna Kingston, 18, was driving on Main Street, on her way to a birthday party with her three siblings.

That’s when Kingston said she saw a man standing in the road, so she honked at him to get out of the way.

Kingston said Christopher Medina-Izarrara came toward her car. She tried to lock the doors, but couldn’t before Medina-Izarrara opened her car door.

“My first thought was it’s not real it’s not real,” Kingston said. “He reaches over, unbuckled my seat belt and said 'get out of the car' and I told him 'no' and he started pulling on my arms and I grabbed the steering wheel and I would not get out of the car."

That’s when good Samaritan Brad Fritz pulled up in front of Joanna’s car, blocking Medina-Izarrara from getting away.

“I just knew right away it was a carjacking and I said 'ain’t going to happen',” said Fritz.

Kingston was able to get the keys out of the car.

“I wasn’t really thinking anything. My main goal was: stop him from driving the car because, if he drives away with the kids in the back, I’ll probably never see them again,” Kingston said.

“If he would have hurt any of them, I would have run him over in the middle of the road,” Fritz said.

All of this happened in front of the South Salt Lake City Police Department.

Surveillance video from a nearby business, United Sales and Service, shows police using a stun gun on the suspect.

On Friday Fritz, Joanna and the whole Kingston family were reunited.

“It was great, and I have to give her so much credit she was smart, she did the right thing when the attention went onto me, she got away and that’s what she had to do,” Fritz said.

Joanna and her family say they are so grateful for Brad. Without him, things could have ended very differently.