Father rams truck into car to stop man police say stalked his teen daughter home from work

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Police said a father crashed his truck into a car to stop a man he believed was stalking his daughter and possibly trying to kidnap her.

Channel 2′s Tom Regan was in Jackson County, where police said the suspect, identified as 24-year-old Volodymyr Ionashku, followed the 17-year-old as she drove home from work for 11 miles to the subdivision she lives.

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That’s where her father jumped into action. The victim, who was not identified, called her father to let him know what was going on.

“He told her, ‘Don’t stop. Keep driving,’” Sheriff Janis Mangum with the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office said.

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Mangum said the teen left her restaurant job last Thursday night only to be aggressively tailed by Ionashku.

“He was right on her bumper using his flasher at one point pulled up beside, went around her and brake checked,” Mangum said.

When she got into her subdivision, her dad jumped into his pickup truck to protect his daughter.

“And the dad blocked him first,” Mangum said. “He went around him in a yard and continued to follow her. That’s when the dad rammed him a second time with his truck, and that time it stopped him.”

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The girl’s mother suffered minor injuries when she fell out of the truck.

Deputies arrested Ionashku and charged him with drunk driving, driving without a license and other charges. The sheriff praised the father and his response.

“As a sheriff, I can tell you that father was doing everything he could do to protect his daughter,” Mangum said. “Which is what any parent would do.”

As for the daughter, Mangum said she did exactly what she was supposed to do.

“She was amazing to keep her wits about her when she’s being chased down the road,” Mangum said.

The teen’s father got several traffic citations. Investigators are looking at bringing additional charges against the suspect, including felony stalking.