Mother responds after NC woman charged with using truck as weapon against two girls
A Burlington woman faces felony assault charges after police say she drove her pickup truck toward two 12-year-old girls, a Graham Police Department spokesman said Tuesday.
Sandrea Warren, 52, was charged with two counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill. The incident occurred around 4 p.m. Friday, said Lt. Daniel Sisk.
A Graham police officer witnessed part of the incident, Sisk said. He told The News & Observer that a police report wasn’t available.
An arrest warrant, obtained from the Alamance County District Court clerk, described a pickup truck as the weapon.
Warren was released from jail on a $200,000 bail bond on Saturday, according to Byron Tucker, a spokesperson for the Alamance County Sheriff’s Office.
Faith Cook, the mother of one of the girls, said she believes the girls were targeted because they’re Black.
Cook’s daughter, Aishah Huru, told the N&O in an interview that she and her friend Gianna Corpezano had walked to Six to One Mini Mart on Harden Street to buy some snacks.
As they left the store, Aishah said she was on the phone with another friend, and they were all laughing and talking on FaceTime. A woman in a gray truck stopped and looked at them, and then asked if they were talking to her, Aisha said.
They told her five times that they weren’t talking about her, Aishah said, but the woman called her a bad name, she said, and started driving toward them. They ran, hiding by the Mexican restaurant next door. That’s when she noticed the Slim Jim she had bought at the store was missing, Aishah said.
“I was like we need to go back to get that, because I spent all my money on it,” she said. “We went back to go get it, because we thought the lady was gone.”
But she said the woman’s truck jumped a curb and headed toward them, Aishah said. The girls ran again. She hid by a Dumpster behind the restaurant, Aishah said, and her friend hid beside a van in the parking lot.
“I was like oh my god, please don’t hit me. Don’t hit me. Don’t hit me,” Gianna said in an interview with FOX8.
Cook said she got a call from Aishah after the incident and thought her daughter was checking to see if she wanted anything from the store. Instead, Aishah said someone had tried to hit them with her truck, Cook said.
“I was like, ‘What, wait, slowdown, what are you talking about?’ ” Cook said. Then a police officer got on the phone, she said.
The arrest warrant indicates Warren was arrested the next day.
Warren hung up when The N&O contacted her Tuesday. The N&O has also tried to contact her attorney John Cox in Graham.
District Attorney Sean Boone said his office is still gathering information on the case.
Talking in general terms and not specifically about this case, Boone said if evidence shows a criminal offense is based on race, religion or other protected classes, defendants can face more severe charges, additional charges and longer prison sentences.
This story was originally published August 25, 2020 at 12:27 PM.
