Caught on Video: Mom Takes Down Alleged Carjacker During High-Speed Police Chase

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWLIk7hhNf8

In an incident captured on video, an angry Texas mother took down a suspected carjacker who crashed into her van during a high-speed police pursuit in Dallas Wednesday.
A high-speed police chase in Dallas ended when a mother whose minivan was hit got out of her vehicle and attacked the suspect. (Credit: CNN)

Jessica Liesmann was stopped at a right light shortly before 4 p.m. when the suspect, Artrai Alexander, slammed into the back of her minivan, CNN affiliate KTVT reported.


Liesmann, who was in the vehicle with her boyfriend and 13-year-old son at the time, told the station, “I didn’t even think. I just jumped out.”
The mother grabbed Alexander as he tried to flee the car he was driving and punched him several times in the middle of the roadway, aerial video over the scene showed.


Her boyfriend then held the man down until officers arrived at the crash site and arrested him, according to KTVT.


Artrai, 40, was booked into Dallas County Jail that night, online inmate records showed.


Liesmann said that she and her boyfriend were on the way to pick up their young daughter from elementary school and were in a designated school zone when the violent confrontation occurred, the TV station reported.
Throughout the ordeal, the mother told KTVT she was just thinking about her teenage son.


“My kid. All I could think about is my kid is in here,” she said. Leismann added that the couple had lost their 4-year-old son to epilepsy about six months ago, and the threat to her child prompted her strong reaction.


The boy was taken to a hospital to be checked out, but doctors said he would be OK.


was set up Wednesday night to purchase a new vehicle for Leismann, who was described on the page as being a “local hero” for her “act of bravery and vigilante justice.” The goal of the campaign was to raise $25,000.


As of Thursday morning, donations had reached about $800.