Marketing senior Amita Padiyar was picking up a friend near campus Nov. 11 when two men carjacked her. Padiyar and her friend were forced to move to the backseat but were able to escape the car and the two men totaled the car near 13th Street and Farmer Avenue. (Photo by Diana Lustig)
Nov. 11 was a seemingly ordinary night for marketing senior Amita Padiyar.
She drove to a parking lot near ASU’s bookstore on the Tempe campus just after midnight to pick up a friend who works at Hayden Library.
She had picked up her friend at that location in the past and said there wasn’t anything unusual that Monday night.
“I was just sitting there with my doors locked,” she said. “My friend came up to my car, so I unlocked it for him.”
Padiyar said her friend got in the car and the two sat for a moment talking, but right as they were about to leave, they were accosted by two men.
“This man opens my driver’s door and told me to get out (and) get in the backseat. They’re taking my car,” she said.
Padiyar said she was in shock.
“I didn’t have the impulse to run, and I was with my friend, so I just went in the backseat,” Padiyar said.
There she and her friend sat, unsure of what would happen. One of the men got in the driver’s seat while the other sat in the back with them.
Padiyar said she tried to covertly dial 911 on her cell phone between her legs, but one of the men told them to hand over their phones. She even tried to stall the man in an effort to get the call to go through but was unsuccessful.
“I tried to ask him if he could just take my car, take my money, or whatever, and just leave us,” she said. “Things are things, our lives are more important.”
But the men refused; the two were along for the ride.
She said communication was difficult, and the two only had moments to whisper to each other. The longer they spent in the car, the fewer options they had. That’s when she made a tough decision.
“We were driving down McAllister towards Apache so it was right by the dorms, and I manually unlocked the back door,” Padiyar said. “I looked at my friend, and I looked at the door so he knew I was going to open it and we were going to jump out.”
She counted to three, and they both jumped out of the moving car.
Padiyar suffered severe road rash, cuts, scrapes and a concussion, while her friend was also injured.
Some ASU students came to help the two and triggered a nearby emergency call box, she said.
Paramedics arrived and treated both her and her friend, while police took their statements.
Not long after, she said police had found her car and the two men.
They had continued on in Padiyar's car, eventually crashing into a tree at the intersection of East 13th Street and South Farmer Avenue, where they were arrested, she said.
Padiyar said in the week following the incident, her physical recovery has been going well, but the incident has taken a different toll on her.
“I’m also dealing with flashbacks of being in that situation, of being in the car and thinking, ‘How in the world am I going to get out of this?'” she said.
Looking back, Padiyar said she wouldn’t have done anything different but made no excuses that she and her friend were lucky.
“I’m very lucky that everything is OK and we weren’t harmed by jumping out of the car,” she said.
Padiyar said talking about the incident has helped, and she encourages students to not take their safety for granted.
“Especially at nighttime, there aren’t that many people on campus, so I would just suggest being more aware of your surroundings,” she said.
She said having a strong support network has also helped her move forward from the incident.
Linda, Padiyar's mother, said she was horrified to hear what happened to her daughter, but believes her daughter did the right thing.
“I’m very proud of how they both reacted,” Linda said. “When it comes to the point (that) you don’t have another option. ... It’s one of those things where what is your choice? They did exactly the right thing.”
The ASU Police Department reported arresting Shaquille Davon Garner, 21, and Gregory Martel Williams, 26, on Nov. 11 in connection with the incident.
Garner is facing charges of kidnapping, aggravated robbery, armed robbery and theft.
Williams is facing charges of kidnapping, aggravated robbery, armed robbery, theft and unlawful flight from law enforcement.
The men are scheduled to be in court next on Thursday, Nov. 21, according to Maricopa County Superior Court.
ASU Police was not immediately available for comment on the incident.
Reach the reporter at mark.remillard@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @markjremillard
