Police are searching for suspects in connection with the death of an Ohio mother who tried to stop thieves from carjacking her SUV while her child was inside.
Alexa Stakely, 29, had picked her 6-year-old son up from an apartment complex on the Southeast Side of Columbus around 1:30 p.m. Thursday. She put her son, Deluca, in her Honda SUV and realized she’d forgotten something from the babysitter.
She went back to the babysitter’s home and left the car running. When the woman went back to her SUV, she noticed it backing out of the driveway. She ran after the car, while yelling for her son before she was hit by the vehicle, according to The Columbus Dispatch.
An officer with the Columbus Police Department found the SUV with the woman’s son asleep in the backseat nearby. The boy said he didn’t see who was driving because he was asleep.
Investigators said witnesses noticed two men running from the area where the woman had been hit. They then jumped a fence and ran into a neighboring apartment complex as the woman was on the ground.
Police are not certain of the number of men involved in the incident.
Based on surveillance footage obtained by police, a group of men were looking into apartments a block away from where the incident happened. The description of the men looking into apartments matched that of the suspects who ran from the car after the woman was hit.
Police have not been able to identify any suspects involved in the incident and are asking for the public’s help in tracking down the thieves.
“Please take a look at your home video footage if you live in the area,” Sergeant James Fuqua said in a plea to residents, the Dispatch reported.
Police are combing through the crime scene to find evidence that might help locate the men and have taken DNA evidence from Stakely’s car.
Stakely worked as a speech pathologist for Canal Winchester Local Schools and as a waitress to support her son.
A GoFundMe has been created to help support the woman’s son. It has surpassed its $15,000 goal and has raised $43,000 as of Saturday. The woman’s son is being taken care of by family members, police said.
The friend who created the post described her as “a coffee addict” who “loved anything with salt on it and had a soft spot for trash TV.”
“She was incredibly smart and sassy in the best way. She will be incredibly missed by the people’s lives she touched,’ the page read.
Police are urging the suspects to turn themselves in and have said that doing so could result in lighter charges if they cooperate.
“They know what they did,” Fuqua said, adding he doesn’t believe the men intended to kill the woman.