VISTA - A security guard who repeatedly rammed his car into a van carrying a woman and her teenage son while pursuing them from Vista to Oceanside was sentenced Friday to three years in prison.

Ibrahim Adem, who came to the United States from Sudan when he was 8 and holds a legal residency card, was found guilty April 6 of two counts of assault with a deadly weapon.

He faced four years and four months in prison, but Judge Harry Elias said he sentenced him to three years because of his below-average I.Q., which his attorney said is 72.

But he said Adem should spend some time in prison because there is a risk he could commit more violence.

Outside court, Adem's brothers said they would appeal the case because their brother thought the victims had stolen from the construction company where he worked and just wanted to be a hero.

"They sentenced an innocent man," Rudwan Adem said.

"The case is kind of bizarre," Elias said during sentencing. "I think it's a real lack of understanding that creates the recidivism issue."

During trial, victim Maria Ramirez testified that about 10:30 p.m. last Oct. 21, she and her son were followed in their van by a small red car.

Ramirez testified that Adem's car struck her van when she slowed to let him pass, then caused several more collisions on a curvy stretch of Foothill Drive.

While her son talked to a 911 dispatcher on his cell phone, the woman said she drove at high speeds and faked turns onto other streets in an effort to get away from the defendant.

Prosecutor Christine Trevino told the court that Adem was a violent man and had been in trouble for violence in his youth, then lied about it to the county probation department.

"He poses an ongoing risk to society," Trevino said.

She reminded the court that "the length of the assault was an 8-plus mile event."

But his brother said he was just trying to do his job.

He spotted three vehicles — one of them the van — outside the construction site near San Clemente Avenue, Rudwan Adem said.

Adem thought perhaps the van's occupants had stolen something from the site and chased the van, Rudwan said.

"The van driver backed into him," Rudwan said.

The brothers said Adem tried to call 911 but dropped his cell phone and when police and sheriff's deputies finally arrived at Plaza Drive, he believed they were going to help him.

"The police arrested him," Suleiman Adem said.

"This guy is a very innocent person," Rudwan said.