Dori: 9-year-old resolved to protect mom after Tacoma carjacking

With heavy morning frost on their car windshield earlier this month, Emily and her 9-year-old son Nicolas spent a few minutes scraping it while their vehicle warmed up outside their Tacoma home.

But in the split seconds before they could leave for work and school, a man pushed his way into their car, parked in an assigned space, and slammed on the gas.

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That, Emily told Wednesday’s Dori Monson Show, caught her by so much surprise that she grabbed onto her car’s window frame, face to face with the carjacker, before he accelerated, dragging her into the street while the back tire struck her body.

“The entire time, I’m screaming,” Emily told Dori’s listeners. Just when she thought it was over, the carjacker “circles around and comes at me a second time. I remember screaming for my son to run away” fearing Nicolas would want to help her.

In the seconds that it took for the carjacker to escape, terror gripped her thoughts.

“Are they going to kill me or take my son?” she recalls thinking.

And what was Nicolas thinking? Dori asked.

“It was very scary. I’m only nine. I’m too young,” the boy told Dori. “I just wanted to help my mom. I was super scared, but I wanted to do everything I could to help my mom.”

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Once she realized that the carjacker had not only her car keys, but the keys to her apartment – which was linked to her assigned parking spot – Emily said she had even more to fear. The thief could return to her home.

That’s why Emily spent the night after the carjacking leaning against her front door “with a knife in my hand, tears pouring down my face. How do I know the carjacker isn’t coming back? Clearly, he has no problem with violence. Clearly, he has no problem with children being there.”

And Nicolas? He told Dori he remains resolved to protect his mom.

What would you say to the carjackers if they could hear you now? Dori asked.

“No matter where you are, no matter what time, we are going to find you,” the boy said.

Hear Tacoma mom and her 9-year-old son describe their shock being carjacked: