The victim of a hit-and-run crash in Brookline, Massachusetts, says in his mind, the driver made a deliberate decision to drive directly at him.
The driver is believed to have been involved in three hit-and-run crashes in Brookline and Cambridge within about an hour Monday morning. Police said they believe she may also have been involved in another hit-and-run in Newton. She was eventually stopped on Interstate 93 northbound in Boston Monday afternoon after another alert driver recognized the car from an NBC10 Boston report and called police.
Brookline police confirmed their suspect and the vehicle were located by Massachusetts State Police. The driver was taken to Boston Medical Center for evaluation and is being held at this time. Her vehicle was towed to Brookline Police Headquarters.
She was identified Tuesday morning as 46-year-old Suzanne Amer of Boston. Brookline police said she is not in their custody at this time, but will be issued a summons to Brookline District Court on charges of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, leaving the scene of a personal injury crash, leaving the scene of a property damage crash and operating to endanger. They said further charges are also possible.
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Additionally, Brookline police said they have filed a request for immediate threat of license suspension/revocation with the state Registry of Motor Vehicles asking for Amer's license to be revoked.
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Brookline police said the driver of a 2007 VW Jetta was involved in the three crashes earlier in the day; one on Memorial Drive in Cambridge, a second on Harvard Street in Brookline and a third involving a pedestrian crossing Pleasant Street in Brookline.
According to police, the incidents started when a 2007 VW Jetta hit another car on Memorial Drive in Cambridge around 9 a.m. and drove off. The other driver was not hurt.
The victim tried to follow the Jetta into Brookline, where the Jetta hit a 63-year-old pedestrian on Pleasant Street. Police said the driver reportedly honked at the pedestrian before driving into them.
Gunther Zupanc said he was trying to cross Pleasant Street and that he has no doubt the driver intended to hit him.
"She made a deliberate decision to turn the car towards me," he said. "It was not that she was just driving off or whatever, after she had stopped, she had made a turn, and then, with high speed, drove towards me."
Zupanc was discharged from the hospital Monday night and is at home recuperating.
"The car came directly towards me and hit me," he said.
A short time later, the same car backed into another vehicle on Harvard Street near Stop & Shop after being beeped at. No one was hurt in that crash. All of this occurred between 9 and 10 a.m. Monday, according to police.
Investigators said the car is registered to an address on Fenwood Road in Boston under a 46-year-old woman, who may have been the person driving based on the suspect description.
