Alexa Stakely, inset, was killed trying to stop carjackers from taking her SUV with her sleeping 6-year-old son inside. (Crime scene screenshot from NBC4 Columbus/YouTube; Victim's photo from Canal Winchester Schools)
A manhunt was underway Friday for two men in Ohio who fatally struck a single mother who tried to stop them from taking her SUV with her sleeping 6-year-old son inside while she was picking the boy up from the babysitter early Thursday morning after finishing her shift at her second job.
The fatal encounter happened at 1:27 a.m. on Thursday. Officers were called to the 6300 block of Blue Knoll Drive on a report of a pedestrian struck by a motor vehicle, the Columbus Division of Police said in a news release.
Once there, officers found Alexa Stakely, 29, lying in the roadway, suffering from traumatic injuries, officials said. She died at a hospital at 8:43 a.m.
Stakely had just gotten off her shift at her second job as a waitress and was picking him up from the babysitter's home.
She was about to drive off when she remembered leaving one of his items and returned to get it. She got out of the vehicle to go to the door, leaving her Honda SUV idling, parked just outside the babysitter's condo. When she returned to her vehicle, she saw it back into the road. She ran toward it but was struck and thrown onto the pavement.
The Honda was driven through the apartment complex and abandoned a short distance away. The two occupants fled, running past Stakely lying on the ground, over a fence and into a neighboring apartment complex. Police found the sleeping child inside the Honda, unharmed, police said in the news release.
Police said surveillance video caught a group of males looking into apartments earlier that morning, including two who matched the description of the males involved in the incident. But no further details were available.
Stakely was a speech-language pathologist for Winchester Trail Elementary School in the Canal Winchester Local Schools.
The district posted a moving tribute on Facebook to "Ms. Alexa," whose family said died heroically while trying to save her son during a carjacking.
"Alexa was passionate about children and speech-language therapy," the tribute said. "She was smart and compassionate, and she cared so much about helping children develop their ability to communicate. She was a great mom who was incredibly dedicated to her son. Ms. Stakely made a difference in the lives of the students and families she worked with and will be missed by so many in our community and beyond."
Parents and others poured their hearts in reaction to the tragedy.
"Look up Momma Bear in the Warrior's Handbook … it's there you would find her picture," Eric Eugene Wolford wrote. "She gave her life to save her son. It's the greatest measure known to mankind since the beginning of time. God-speed, Warrior."
Parent Vanessa Ross said she's deeply missed.
"She poured into all three of my younger boys and is a huge reason for my youngest two having such clear speech today," she wrote.
A GoFundMe page to raise money for her son said her students adored her.
"She was beautiful inside and out and left a mark on this world in the short time she had," the page said. "She was a coffee addict, 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."
