A man has been hospitalized with severe head injuries after someone stole his pickup truck during the Oroville evacuation and ran him over, KPIX reported.
Cameron Asbury, 33, was packing up the truck with his family’s belongings after receiving the evacuation order Sunday afternoon when an unidentified man hijacked the vehicle and sped away.
Cameron’s father told KPIX that he and his son got into another vehicle and chased the truck onto Farley Street in Oroville.
“He told him just leave the truck, man. … Just jump out and leave the truck,” Cameron’s father said.
Instead of getting out of the truck, the man hit the gas and ran Cameron over, according to his father.
The unidentified man fled the scene in the stolen vehicle and as of Wednesday was still at large.
Cameron suffered major head and facial injuries and was in critical condition after several surgeries, but his father said he is now stable.
“He has major, severe head injuries,” said his father. “The right side of his face is all tore off; crushed skull and nerve damage.”
The Butte County Sheriff’s Department is investigating the incident.
The Asbury family was among the 188,000 residents in Oroville and along the Feather River who were ordered to evacuate in less than an hour Sunday after the Oroville Dam’s auxiliary spillway appeared to be on the brink of collapse.
Gov. Jerry Brown issued an emergency order to strengthen California’s response to the potential collapse of the spillway and asked President Trump for aid. Trump has approved the request.
Local officials allowed some residents to go home Tuesday after workers’ efforts to lower the level of the lake succeeded. Large rocks were also used to plug a hole in the spillway that threatened its collapse.
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