Hassan Sayed and the mother of his children were riding in an SUV in Dearborn, Michigan when the two got into a “domestic dispute.” The so-called lovers’ spat only went from bad to worse when the woman, who was driving, pulled the vehicle over and asked Sayed to get out after they had been arguing. Instead, the man launched into a full-blown attack on the mother of his kids.
When Sayed refused to get out of the SUV and began striking her, the woman exited the vehicle to attempt to call the police. That’s when things took a turn for the worst. Rather than diffusing the situation, the woman’s efforts to end the argument escalated Sayed’s fury to the point that he mercilessly attacked her even worse, all while their young children were in the backseat.
With the couple’s 2-year-old and 3-year-old children in the back seat, police say 34-year-old Sayed forced his way into the driver’s seat, but not before chasing the woman into the street, taking her purse and phone away, and pushing and hitting her. The woman, fearing for the safety of the children, tried to pull Sayed out of the vehicle, according to police.
When he overpowered the mother of his children, he drove away at a high rate of speed while crossing into oncoming traffic lanes. With the kids still in the backseat, their mother was caught in the door of the SUV and dragged around the city block, according to Dearborn Free Press.
“Sayed placed the vehicle in gear and accelerated away with the female hanging onto the door. The vehicle accelerated to a high rate of speed while crossing into oncoming traffic lanes,” police said in a news release as reported by Press and Guide.
The surveillance cameras of a local business caught the horrific ordeal in heart-pounding video footage. “She was still attempting to get him out of the car when he took off with her hanging on to the side of the vehicle,” Dearborn Police Detective Patricia Penman explained, according to ABC7.
Sayed continued for about one block before the woman was able to reach the gear stick and put the vehicle in park, according to police. The man then got out of the vehicle and fled on foot. The mother was able to escape with non-life-threatening injuries. The children were not physically harmed, although the emotional trauma of witnessing the incident had to be immense.
Sayed was later arrested, facing a decade behind bars for stealing the woman’s purse, kidnapping, negligence, child abuse, assault with a deadly weapon, stealing the woman’s cell phone, and endangering a child. He was eventually arraigned before Judge Mark Somers on official charges that included assault with a dangerous weapon/felonious assault, two counts of fourth-degree child abuse, larceny, and interfering with a crime report. The weapon in the assault charge is the car.
Sayed was issued a $200,000 cash/surety bond, a tether upon release, and a no-contact order with the woman. Sadly, this was not Sayed’s first offense. He is a habitual offender, according to CBS Detroit, although they do not detail his previous offenses.
“Crimes of domestic violence are a continuing problem in our society,” Dearborn Police Chief Ronald Haddad said in a statement. “There are often many silent victims in these families.” Shockingly, the US Department of Justice states that 25 percent of women will become victims of domestic violence.
That’s almost a million women battered annually, ABC7 points out. For help with domestic abuse, victims are encouraged to call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). No one should feel they have to take this kind of abuse from a loved one.