Nashville 7-Year-Old Saves Younger Sister When Their Grandfather Got Carjacked

A 7-year-old girl from Nashville is being hailed as a hero after she rescued her 3-year-old sister during a carjacking incident involving their grandfather while he was picking them up from daycare.

Convicted felon Elijah Malik McDowell, 27, who was on probation at the time, had been on the run after allegedly carjacking a black Dodge Charger by holding a 35-year-old victim at gunpoint, according to the Metro Nashville Police Department. McDowell abandoned the car after crashing it and headed off on foot into a residential area.

That’s where he encountered Luis Mena, who was picking up his granddaughters Stephanie, 3, and Amy, 7, from daycare. 

“We started fighting,” Mena told local news outlet WSMV. He told the interviewer that McDowell opened the driver’s side door and attempted to force Mena out of his Toyota Tundra pickup truck. “But my T-shirt got all broken. He grabbed me from my T-shirt and threw me to the ground,” Mena said.

The grandfather said he lost consciousness, waking up because he heard his grandchildren crying. At first, he believed the suspect had taken off in the truck with the two little girls still inside.

“What made me conscious again was when one of my little kids cried,” Mena said, per WSMV. “That was my biggest worry — not only my truck getting stolen, but with my girls in it.”

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What actually happened was Amy had managed to get her little sister out of the vehicle during the attack.

“I was fighting with this guy,” Mena said. “[Amy] jumped from the truck, and she pulled her sister out of the truck so they could escape and be safe.”

“The materialistic things come and go. But my girls don’t,” he added.

McDowell ditched the vehicle a short time later and was apprehended by a police canine unit. He was treated at the hospital for dog bite injuries.

He was next charged with multiple crimes, including 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” to make a gun fully automatic, aggravated assault for driving at the two children, reckless driving, resisting arrest, and driving on a revoked license, per the report. His bond was set at $211,000.

WSMV reported that McDowell was previously convicted of aggravated assault and narcotics charges.