'He tried to kill me': Graffiti vandal's arm trapped in car window, dragged hundreds of metres
A graffiti vandal has been dragged hundreds of metres with his arm trapped in a car window after an angry clash at Yarraville in Melbourne.
A driver confronted the man after catching him illegally painting a wall at the local tennis court.
With half of his body hanging out of the window of the moving car, Mik Shida was clinging on for dear life.
He says the Jaguar dragged him for 700 metres after a confrontation with the driver.
"I thought I was going to die, I was screaming, begging," Mr Shida said.
The 27-year-old had just finished painting an unauthorised mural at the Yarraville Tennis Club when the Jaguar began following him and his girlfriend.
Mr Shida said he pulled over and tried to reason with the Jaguar driver, but things quickly escalated.
"I leant into the window and the man grabbed my arm," Mr Shida said.
"Then he just hit the accelerator and drove off with me dangling outside."
The car travelled over a bridge on Somerville Road before another driver intervened.
Mr Shida was left unconscious and was taken to hospital with scrapes and bruises.
Despite his version of events, police are treating the incident as a case of criminal damage.
They say the Jaguar driver may have "panicked" when Mr Shida approached the car and that he stopped after 200 metres.
Mr Shida has had his work displayed all over the world but acknowledges that in this case his work was illegal.
The pair said there are other ways to report graffiti that don't involve putting lives at risk.
"Take a picture of their number plates, go into your local police station and report it, that's your right," Mr Shida's girlfriend Zheani said.
"Your right is not to come into another person's life and put their life in danger."
"The result is, he tried to kill me, and I don't think that's acceptable," Mr Shida said.
