Detectives in Columbus, Ohio, were investigating the death of a woman who was fatally struck by her own vehicle while trying to stop a carjacking that occurred with her 6-year-old son in the car. Alexa Stakley, 29, was carjacked last Thursday while picking up her son at the home of a babysitter after a shift waiting tables. After putting the sleeping boy inside her Honda SUV, Stakley walked back toward the babysitter’s house to retrieve an item, and saw her car moving. She was seen “running toward her Honda and was heard screaming for her child,” police said, the New York Times reports. Moments later, Stakley was struck by the vehicle, suffering a fatal wound to the head. Two men were seen running away from the area, abandoning the vehicle nearby. Police officers found the child inside the car unharmed. Carjackings have been called “an important public safety threat” by the Department of Justice, which has established 11 task forces to combat the crime in areas of particular concern, like Philadelphia, Chicago and Tampa, Fla.
Carjacking has been challenging to track because police departments do not report that type of crime in a consistent manner, said criminologist Alex Piquero pf the University of Miami, former director of the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Carjackings soared in many cities during the pandemic. Since then, they have declined in some cities, like Washington, D.C., but climbed in others, like Milwaukee. The FBI says 25,400 carjackings were reported in 2022, an 8.1 percent increase over the year before. Piquero said that data from cities that make crime data available in real time suggests carjackings have become less common in much of the U.S. in the past two years. Push-button ignitions have made it easier for criminals to start vehicles without snatching keys from a driver. Pandemic-era supply chain disruptions made used cars more valuable. Because many of the carjackers who have been arrested in recent years are juveniles, their punishments are often lax and some have gone on to commit new crimes. In Milwaukee, hosting the Republican National Convention this week, reported carjackings have increased 29 percent since 2019. Police chief Jeffrey Norman urged residents and the tens of thousands of people who will be attending the convention starting Monday to be on alert.