'I didn't think I was going to see them again': Mom, boys haunted by carjacking in Green
The carjacking at a Taco Bell in Green last Thursday has so terrified a Tallmadge mom and her three young boys that they sleep in her room at night, afraid of what might lurk in the dark.
The middle boy, 5, has fears the man who climbed into the family car and forced her out might be lurking close by, his mother said Tuesday.
"(He) has been angry," the mom said. "The other night he woke up, and he thought the guy was in his closet."
The woman and her sons were the target of a carjacker while they placed an order at the Arlington Street Taco Bell in Green. They had come from Target, after shopping for a Barbie for a relative, and were picking up an early dinner.
The Beacon Journal is not identifying the woman and her sons for the family's safety and privacy.
'He was a beast'
While she placed an order, the mom said the man climbed into her vehicle on the passenger seat, forcing her out as she tried desperately to fend him off.
"I remember I just wanted to kill him," she said. "He was a beast; he was so strong."
She realized she could not force the intruder out, so she began screaming for her boys to get out of the car.
"I was hanging (on)," she said. "I was grabbing the door."
She said the carjacker watched her with "lifeless" eyes.
Chaos at the Taco Bell
When he gained control of the driver's side of the car, the man put the vehicle in gear while she hung on to the frame.
He crashed into the speaker, she said, as she and her boys were screaming. He put the vehicle in reverse and hit the Taco Bell again.
"That's when I fell off," she said. "That's when he drove away with the boys in the car. … I didn't think I was going to see them again."
She got up and started running after the car. She saw her 5-year-old coming toward her.
"He had unbuckled and got out," she said.
A 6-year-old hero
She didn't see her oldest, 6, but as the carjacker left the parking lot, the boy jumped out of the vehicle.
But her 2-year-old, her youngest, remained in the vehicle.
"He just drove away," she said.
Her 6-year-old, she found, had been late to exit the vehicle because he was trying to unbuckle his little brother and save him.
"(He) kept saying: 'I'm sorry. It's my fault,'" she said. "My son is such a hero. He stayed behind to try and unbuckle (his brother)."
But her son didn't see it that way, and still feels guilty he wasn't able to help his youngest brother escape.
"He said, 'My brother is going to die because of me.'"
Waiting for her youngest son
The mom watched as the man drove toward the nearby McDonald's and, then, he was out of sight, her 2-year-old still trapped inside.
"He dumped him in the parking lot at Circle K," she said. "An undercover cop was there and she scooped him up."
From there, she said, the man went on to have two accidents before he was finally caught by deputies.
Mark Carlson of Cuyahoga Falls is charged in the incident. On Saturday, he pleaded not guilty to four second-degree felonies including three counts of kidnapping and one count of aggravated robbery. He also pleaded not guilty to theft of a motor vehicle and fleeing or eluding an officer, both fourth-degree felonies.
She waited at Taco Bell, screaming for help as deputies arrived from a related incident at a BP station nearby.
Recovering from a traumatic incident
Since the incident, the mother said she's been recovering from physical injuries. She and her boys also have been dealing with the psychological aftermath.
"I can't get his eyes out of my head," she said. "I can't sleep."
Her car was totaled. She has rung up medical bills, and her family remains terrified, she said. The youngest, she said, is doing OK.
But they are recovering together, and she has all her boys back.
A GoFundMe page has been established to help with medical bills. It can be reached at https://www.gofundme.com/f/danielle-and-her-boys
In the ambulance at the parking lot, her youngest boy was returned to her by the undercover officer who scooped him to safety. She said she is grateful to the police "who busted their butts getting that piece of trash and bringing our baby back safely."
And she will always remember the moment her youngest boy came back.
"They brought him into the ambulance," she said. "She gave him to me. It was the best moment of my life."
Leave a message for Alan Ashworth at 330-996-3859 or email him at aashworth@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @newsalanbeaconj.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Mom recounts terror of man stealing vehicle with young boys inside
