North Carolina DoorDash Delivery And Mom Gets Smashed Bloody With A Baseball Bat For Honking At A Green Light, Was Stalked, Cut Off Before Nearly Killed

A North Carolina mother of three is recovering from emergency brain surgery after a man followed her, blocked her in, and beat her in the head with a wooden bat — all because she tapped her horn at a green light.

Christen Phillips, 34, was working a late-night DoorDash and Uber Eats shift in Onslow County early Saturday morning to help support her kids. She was behind a black Range Rover that sat motionless at a green light. She honked. That was it.

According to Phillips, the driver then trailed her to her next delivery on Shamrock Road near Jacksonville. When she returned to her car, the man approached with a wooden bat and struck her repeatedly in the head and face until she collapsed.

“I believe he thought I was dead and left me for dead. It’s a miracle I woke up,” Phillips said.

She suffered multiple skull fractures, brain bleeds, a shattered cheekbone, and fluid leaking from her ear. Despite the catastrophic injuries and heavy blood loss, the working mother somehow got herself into her vehicle and drove to Onslow Memorial Hospital. She was later transferred to a Wilmington trauma center for brain surgery and titanium plates in her skull.

Phillips told police and posted on Facebook that the attacker was a light-skinned Black male, approximately 6 feet tall, in his late 30s to early 40s. Authorities, however, have released only a description of the black Range Rover. They have declined to publicly share the suspect’s race.

The Onslow County Sheriff’s Office says the attack appears to have been random road rage and that investigators are following leads and seeking surveillance video. The suspect remains at large.

Phillips was simply trying to earn extra money for her three children in the middle of the night. One brief honk at a driver who refused to move at a green light nearly cost her her life.

The video circulating of her injuries and hospital recovery is graphic and difficult to watch, a stark reminder of how quickly a routine delivery can turn into a near-fatal assault.