Horrific video captured the moment a young mother was slammed to the ground by a former football player following a road rage incident in Massachusetts.
Hailea Soares, 31, was thrown to the pavement by Gladior Kwesiah, 26, in Attleboro after a minor car crash at the intersection of Route 1 and Route 1A around 8.50 am Friday.
When officers responded to multiple 911 calls for the collision, they found Soares lying on the ground, crying and bleeding from her head, according to Attleboro Police.
At the scene, the responding officer also found Kwesiah, of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, standing over the mother-of-two.
Soares, who stand at just 5 feet tall and weighs 110lbs, said the violent incident unfolded after Kwesiah harassed her on the highway. He then slammed the brakes while driving, making her car collide into his.
Kwesiah then approached the mom when she got out of her truck and pinned her to the ground while trying to grab her phone, she said.
A nearby witness captured the horrific moment as Kwesiah slammed Soares head-first in the middle of the road.
‘When a man picks you up almost over their head and throws you to the ground, yeah, you start questioning if you’re going to wake up again after that,’ Soares told Boston 25 News.
‘I rolled over, and there was blood dripping onto my hands. And that’s when I realized, I couldn’t move, I couldn’t stand.’
Bystanders later told authorities that before Kwesiah threw the mother on the pavement, he had been banging on the roof of her car.
Kwesiah and Soares then got into a verbal dispute as she was heard screaming ‘Leave me alone!’ to the man before he picked her up.
In that moment, Soares said she thought she was going to die.
‘The only thing that I could think of was I knew I was in the air and by the time I was realizing I was in the air and I thought to myself, like, I might die right now, I had already hit the ground.
‘And I didn’t realize that I had hit the ground. It was like a weird sensation I felt on my face and that’s when I realized I was on the ground and I rolled over and there was blood dripping all over my hands,’ she told CBS News.
She was taken to Sturdy Memorial Hospital and left with a broken foot, broken knee, a serious damage to her eye socket and a severe injury to her head, which required eight stitches.
Soares said she immediately thought of her one-year-old and eight-year-old children as she had no idea if she would make it out alive.
‘I have a baby. You know, who wouldn’t even know me, who wouldn’t even remember me,’ she said.
A GoFundMe page was created to help Soares during this challenging time.
‘I am reaching out with an urgent plea for help after a horrifying incident that has forever changed our beloved Hailea’s life,’ wrote, Bianca, a friend.
Bianca added that Soares is the ‘sole provider’ for her young children, but now with her extensive injuries she won’t be able to work.
The donations are set to go toward covering the mother’s hospital bills, supporting her children while she heals, and helping out with rent and utilities.
As of Sunday evening, more than $18,840 was raised for Soares and her kids.
Sgt. Kevin Sellers with the Attleboro Police Department said the entire incident was ‘outrageous and shocking.’
‘Especially a male attacking a woman in that fashion. Certainly unacceptable, criminal, and the police were able to take appropriate action,’ Sellers said.
Kwesiah was arrested and charged with causing bodily injury, malicious destruction of property, operating a motor vehicle without a license, and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon – the pavement.
He was taken to the Attleboro District Court and arraigned on Friday, according to CBS News.
His bail was set at $2,500 cash and he is not allowed to have contact with the victim.
According to a local outlet, The Valley Breeze, Kwesiah signed his National Letter of Intent to join American International College in 2017.
The former gridiron star earned First-Team All-State honors as a lineman for Shea High School, and was a two-time First-Team All-Division pick.
At the time, Kwesiah told the outlet his main focus was his family, including his grandmother, mother and grandfather.
He added that he really ‘just wanted to focus on a good education, no matter what.’
It was unclear what, if anything, came of Kwesiah’s college-bound dreams.