In an extraordinary display of bravery, a 7-year-old girl in Nashville became a young hero after saving her sister and herself from a harrowing carjacking incident.
The incident, which occurred last Wednesday, involved a confrontation with an armed and masked individual, identified as 27-year-old Elijah McDowell. According to WSMV-TV, McDowell allegedly hijacked a vehicle and subsequently crashed it on I-440.
Attempting to flee the area, McDowell encountered Luis Mena and his granddaughters, 7-year-old Amy and 3-year-old Stephanie, who were leaving daycare. According to WSMV-TV, McDowell allegedly attempted to steal Mena’s pickup truck at gunpoint.
Mena tried to protect his granddaughters, but McDowell managed to overpower him, knocking him unconscious. “What made me conscious again was when one of my little kids cried,” Mena told WSMV-TV. His primary concern, he expressed, was not the loss of his vehicle but the safety of his granddaughters.
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In a remarkable turn of events, 7-year-old Amy managed to escape from the truck with her younger sister while Mena fought McDowell. “I was fighting with this guy,” Mena said. “She jumped from the truck, and she pulled her sister out of the truck so they could escape and be safe.”
According to WSMV-TV, Mena thanked God for Amy’s heroic actions. “The materialistic things come and go,” he said. “But my girls don’t.”
McDowell, whose record includes charges of aggravated assault and narcotics, according to Metro Nashville Police, was later apprehended by the police.
Describing the nature of McDowell’s arrest following his fight with Mena and the carjacking, the Metro Nashville Police noted, “McDowell got inside and drove to Sadler Avenue where he got out, ran into the woods, and then onto railroad tracks. That is where a police canine team caught up to him and took him into custody.”
McDowell has been charged with two counts of carjacking, two counts of felony evading arrest, the use of a gun during the act of a violent felony, unlawful possession of a gun by a convicted felon, unlawfully possessing a “Glock switch,” aggravated assault, reckless driving, driving on a revoked license, and resisting arrest. McDowell’s bond was set at $211,000.
This news article was partially created with the assistance of artificial intelligence and edited and fact-checked by a human editor.
