A mother was killed Thursday while trying to stop two men from stealing her SUV while her 6-year-old slept inside, police moved in Columbus, Ohio announced.
Alexa Stakely, a 29-year-old speech therapist at a local school, had just finished a shift at her second job as a waitress and had gone to pick up her son from his babysitter, according to a police news release.
Columbus Police Department
Stakely put her son in her SUV and started the car before realizing she had forgotten something and headed back to the babysitter’s house, according to a police news release. When she returned to her car, she saw it backing onto the road and ran towards it.
She was struck by the SUV and “thrown to the sidewalk,” the news release said. Police discovered her at about 1.30am on Thursday lying in the road suffering from “traumatic injuries”, and she was pronounced dead at 8.43am that same morning.
According to the affidavit, the SUV was “driven through the apartment complex” before being abandoned nearby. Stakely’s son was found safe and asleep in the car.
Police said two men ran past an injured Stakely who was lying in the road to a neighboring apartment complex, the news release said. Surveillance footage from earlier in the day showed a group of men looking into a nearby apartment. Two of the men in the footage matched the description of the men running past Stakely, police said.
Canal Winchester Schools, where Stakely worked, said in a statement posted on Facebook that the school is deeply saddened by Stakely’s death.
“She was a wonderful mother who was incredibly devoted to her son,” the statement said. “Ms. Stakely made a difference in the lives of the students and families she worked with and will be missed by many in our community and beyond.”
Stakely’s younger brother, Hayden Swartz, said local news station WBNS that he hopes the suspects will turn themselves in.
“Do what’s right. Justice must be done and people must learn their lesson that there is justice in this community and in this world,” Swartz said.