Police are trying to find the hit-and-run driver who struck a blind reverend and his guide dog Monday night in East Palo Alto.
Rev. Albert Macklin, of the New Sweet Home Church, said the female driver actually stopped and asked if he was OK, then she fled the scene.
The incident happened around 8 p.m. as Macklin was walking in the area of Myrtle Street and Sparrow Court when a woman backed her car into him.
Led by his guide dog "Eden," he was a block from home, walking to Starbucks to meet his wife.
"I yelled to her, 'You hit me,' and I slammed on her trunk with my fist," Macklin said. "She stopped. I proceeded to pull the dog out from underneath her back."
The reverend knows the driver was a woman because he heard her voice clearly.
"She's asking me was I OK, and she said, 'Let me move the car forward,'" he said.
But instead she made U-turn and did not stop again.
"I heard her pick her speed up, and swerve around me and go out of the cul-de-sac," Macklin said.
Rev. Macklin said he's hoping for an apology from the driver who backed into him.
Police said they are investigating the incident as a misdemeanor hit-and-run with injuries. Macklin nor his dog were injured, but the accident has changed him.
"I'm very fearful now to walk with my dog up and down the streets of East Palo Alto with people driving who really don't care," he said.
Members of Macklin's congregation are praying for someone to come forward.
"To just keep going, that's not good," church member Lennie McQueen said. "God won't bless you for that."
East Palo Alto police are asking the public to give back to a man who has given so much o the community.
"He's well known in the community," East Palo Alto Police Sergeant Jeff Liu said. "This is a time for the community to step up and let us know who did this."
