An El Cajon woman whose foot was crushed when she was pelted with eggs and run over by unknown attackers in an SUV said her injury has put her in a wheelchair and devastated her life.

“I feel like my life is ruined,” said 21-year-old Kate McConnaughey.

Kate McConnaughey (right) and Dominic Gagliardi. (Photo courtesy of Kate McConnaughey) (Courtesy of Kate McConnaughey)

Crime Stoppers is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the people responsible, $4,000 of which was provided by Kate’s father, Roy McConnaughey.


“Her injuries are significant and life changing,” he said.

McConnaughey and her 22-year-old boyfriend Dominic Gagliardi were walking home in El Cajon about midnight on March 19 when four young women, possibly teenagers, in a silver Lexus-style SUV drove by and lobbed eggs at them.

McConnaughey said it was a completely random act and that she and Gagliardi did not know the people in the car.

A short time later, the two encountered the vehicle again and were pelted with eggs a second time, said El Cajon police Detective Mark Barber. The car, which was in a cul-de-sac, then made an abrupt U-turn and drove back toward them.


Barber said the couple stepped into the street in an effort to get the car to stop. Gagliardi suffered abrasions after he grabbed onto a side mirror of the car and was dragged a short distance, and McConnaughey’s lower right leg was hit.

McConnaughey said the driver tried to hit both of them on purpose.

“It was definitely 100% deliberate, there’s not a doubt in my mind,” said the Grossmont College student whose right foot was shattered.

Investigators are considering the incident an attack with a deadly weapon.


After hitting McConnaughey, the driver sped off, running over someone’s lawn and hedges in her haste to get away, Barber said.

“I don’t know if Kate will be able to walk after this,” said her mother Jean McConnaughey.

McConnaughey has had to undergo two surgeries so far. The first was to save her foot from being amputated, her mother said. Three days later, in an operation that lasted more than six hours, doctors implanted hardware and cement into her foot to shore up her heel bone which was obliterated.

“I have been in pain every single day and night,” McConnaughey said.


Doctors said her foot will never be the same.

“My future is very unclear right now,” said McConnaughey who loves to walk and hike, skateboard and go to the gym. “I’m scared,” she said with tears in her voice.

Barber said he has some surveillance video of the car in question as well as some evidence that is being tested.

All of the people in the car were said to be between 17 and 23 years old.


The driver was white, the front passenger was thought to be white or Hispanic and a passenger in the back seat was also described as a white female with a ponytail.

Barber urged the young women involved to come forward, saying it would be better it they turned themselves in rather than wait until police find them.

“I know that everyone in that car knows what happened,” McConnaughey said.

Roy McConnaughey has also started a GoFundMe page to help pay for his daughter’s medical and long-term care.


“I hope that I will be able to walk again,” Kate McConnaughey said. “I hope someday when I get married that I can walk down the aisle.”

Anyone with information about the case can call El Cajon police at (619) 579-3311 or Crime Stoppers at (888) 580 -8477 where tipsters can remain anonymous.


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