NASHVILLE, Tennessee (WSMV) — A 7-year-old Nashville girl saved her little sister’s life after a man held their family at gunpoint.
This all happened when their grandfather picked them up from daycare and another man tried to steal their car.
Police said it started around the 800 block of Murfreesboro Pike. They said Elijah McDowell stole a car at gunpoint and drove it onto I-440, where he crashed it. He then ran to a residential area where another victim, Luis Mena, said he was picking up his grandkids from daycare Wednesday afternoon on Lyle Lane.
Metro Nashville police said that McDowell attempted to steal his second car that day while wearing a ski mask.
Mena said McDowell came up behind his pickup truck with his two granddaughters, 7-year-old Amy and 3-year-old Stephanie, in the back seat. Mena said McDowell opened the door and demanded he get out.
“We started fighting,” said Mena. “But my T-shirt got all broken. He grabbed me from my T-shirt and threw me to the ground.”
Mena said he was knocked unconscious as McDowell took off in his truck. All he could think about was little Amy and Stephanie.
“What made me conscious again was when one of my little kids cried,” Mena said. “That was my biggest worry – not only my truck getting stolen, but with my girls in it.”
He said the cry came from nearby and realized Amy saved her sister.
“I was fighting with this guy,” said Mena. “She jumped from the truck, and she pulled her sister out of the truck so they could escape and be safe.”
Now, as they try to focus on moving into a new house, Mena said he thanks God for Amy’s intelligence.
“The materialistic things come and go,” said Mena. “But my girls don’t.”
Police said McDowell has been convicted of violent felonies before in Rutherford County like aggravated assault and narcotics charges.
