Last week, Nashville police were pursuing a stolen car and used a spike strip to pop the car’s tires, causing the suspect to crash.
The convicted felon Elijah Malik McDowell who was on probation then ran on foot into a residential neighborhood and approached Luis Mena’s truck at gunpoint. The man pulled Mena from his vehicle and pistol whipped him. Mena blacked out briefly, and Elijah sped off in Luis's truck.
Unbeknownst to the carjacker Luis had just picked up his 7 year old granddaughter Amy and her three-year-old sister Stephanie from daycare. They were in the backseat. And as Luis was waking up to see his truck drive off all he could think of was the girls in his truck with a madman!
But then Mena heard Amy say it's OK Grandpa we're here. She was holding Stephanie's hand. Amy explained that during the commotion, she knew she had to get Stephanie out of the truck. So while Mena was fighting off the assailant, Amy managed to unbuckle Stephanie's booster seat and carry her out the other side and ran away.
Police were already in pursuit of the suspect before the incident and tracked him to nearby woods, where he was apprehended by a police canine. The suspect has been charged with two counts of carjacking, two counts of felony evading arrest, unlawful gun possession by a convicted felon, gun use during the commission of a violent felony, possessing a “Glock switch” that makes a gun fully automatic, aggravated assault for driving at the two children, reckless driving, resisting arrest and driving on a revoked license. . Mena is grateful that his granddaughter Amy was so brave and smart as to save herself and her little sister. He was never worried about his truck, afterall, it can be replaced. “The materialistic things come and go,” he says, “But my girls don’t.”