A 19-year-old woman is recovering after a driver intentionally hit her because the driver thought that she was her husband’s mistress, according to police.
The details, via KTLA:
The collision happened Wednesday afternoon while the victim was walking in the area of Jones and Robinson avenues, said Officer Ryan Railsback of the Riverside Police Department. She was transported to a hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening, police said.
Authorities have not released the name of the injured woman or the motorist, described as a woman in her late-30s.
“According to the investigation, the driver did admit that she intentionally did it, thinking it was a woman who might have had some type of relationship with her husband,” Railsback said.
“It turns out there was no relationship,” the officer said, describing the case as one of “mistaken identity.”
The driver had not been booked because she was being treated at a hospital for an unrelated illness, according to the Police Department.
The driver’s son did not want to be identified, but he did offer an apology to the younger woman who was struck with the vehicle.
“I want to say sorry to the girl’s family,” he said. “They don’t know who we are. I don’t know who they are.”
He also told KTLA that his mother had been suffering from mental illness and that this action was out of character for her.
