A former Whitehorse man is being hailed as a hero after helping the elderly victim of a car-jacking Tuesday in Calgary, where he has lived for several years.

The Calgary Sun reported all the elderly woman involved could do was scream as a man attacked and carjacked her in a parking stall for disabled motorists in broad daylight Tuesday afternoon.

The commotion was enough to attract bystanders, including 34-year-old John Lemphers, formerly of Whitehorse and Lake Laberge, who may well have saved her from being run over by her own vehicle as her assailant peeled away.

The 73-year-old woman was outside her car, keys and purse in-hand, near the Staples at Northgate Village Mall in Calgary's northeast shortly before 3 p.m., when a man pushed her to the ground.

Calgary police have asked him not to make any more public statements on the incident, so he was unavailable to speak to the Star today.

However, he did speak to Calgary media outlets.

"I was on my way to lunch and I heard a scream from behind me,” Lemphers, who works at Staples, told the Sun.

"I saw an elderly lady that was knocked to the ground, just behind her vehicle. The assailant then grabbed her bag, grabbed her keys and tore off to the other side of the vehicle to hop in.

"She was still laying behind her vehicle, so I picked her up and dragged her out of the way so he wouldn't run her over.”

He said he tried to get his phone out to get a picture of the assailant but didn't have time, the Sun reported.

The assailant made off with her vehicle, but police say she didn't suffer any severe physical injuries as a result of the ordeal, the Sun said.

"Just scum. Absolute scum,” Lemphers said of the assailant.

"I can't believe somebody would even do that,” he told the Calgary Herald Wednesday.

"It's sickening — it makes me feel physically sick.”

Police are now on the hunt for the assailant, who they've describe as a darker-skinned male, 20 to 30 years of age, wearing a black bomber-style jacket.

"I can't believe that it happened that suddenly. I wish there was more I would have done, to tell you the truth .... I wish I could have stopped him somehow,” Lemphers, who moved to Whitehorse as a child, told the Herald.

"He was ready to back up just over top of her. I pulled her up onto the curb.”

Lemphers, who has also worked at the Mae Bachur Animal Shelter and the Staples store in Whitehorse, told the Herald he's distraught by the incident and hopes police will be able to find the vehicle and culprit.