Alexa Stakely, a 29-year-old single mother, was killed Thursday in Ohio while attempting to prevent her vehicle from being stolen with her 6-year-old son inside.
The two suspects involved in the carjacking remain at large.
The incident occurred in Columbus around 1:30 a.m., when Stakely had just finished her shift as a waitress and went to pick up her son from a babysitter, reported The Columbus Dispatch.
She initially brought the child out to her Honda-CRV, and left it running as she went back into the home to retrieve some of his belongings, authorities said.
While returning to her vehicle, Stakely saw it pulling out of the driveway with someone inside. She ran after the car, yelling for the driver to stop, but was struck by the vehicle and hit her head on the road.
Law enforcement later recovered the abandoned CRV a short distance away and found the sleeping child unharmed in the backseat.
Stakely was found by police lying in the road with severe injuries. She was transported to a hospital where she was pronounced dead around 8:43 a.m.
Witnesses reported seeing two men running past Stakely’s body during the incident and jumping a fence into a neighboring apartment complex, but police have yet to locate them.
Along with her nighttime job as a waitress, Stakely also worked as a speech-language pathologist in the preschool program at Winchester Trail Elementary School.
“Alexa was passionate about children and speech-language therapy,” the school district wrote in a post on social media. “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.”