MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A poll worker was carjacked at gunpoint after volunteering on election night, neighbors say.
It happened around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday in Frayser.
“It’s just shocking. I couldn’t believe it when she told me that,” Tonia Daniels said, describing what her neighbor said in a phone call Tuesday night.
“I guess she was calling me because the police and ambulance was outside. And she said she had just got home and got carjacked.”
Police say the woman, who is in her 40s, was backing into the driveway when she noticed two people approach her. One called her an expletive and demanded she give them her keys.
They then repeatedly pushed her to the ground, knocked her keys out of her hand, pointed a gun at her and stole her black Dodge Challenger.
“After that she said her legs were scarred up,” Daniels said. She says the incident put her on edge.
She’s already being more cautious and paying better attention to her surrounding when coming and going from her home. “It’s strange, because it’s so quiet over here. And it’s really, you know, nothing like that ever happens over here.”
Daniels says she hopes this is an isolated incident and is happy her neighbor is okay.
“I was shaken up. She was shaken up. But she is a real sweet lady. I love her to death. I just couldn’t believe someone did that. I don’t know if someone was watching her or if it was just random. But it was just weird. I couldn’t believe it.”
The Shelby County Election Commission confirmed the victim was working as an election officer in Frayser and then dropped ballots off in Raleigh on election night. It’s not clear if she was followed back home to Frayser after completing her election duties.