A Maryland woman was killed Sunday when she tried to stop a man from stealing her car at a convenience store in Sterling, Virginia.
A criminal complaint says that Melody Waldecker, 54, left her car running when she stopped at the 7-Eleven in the Town Center at Sterling shopping center just after 11:30 a.m., the Loudon Times reported. She saw a man get into her vehicle and ran out, trying to open the driver’s side door.
The thief slammed the door shut and backed up.
“Melody hung on the vehicle, but fell to the ground and the vehicle ran her over,” the complaint said.
The incident was captured on the store’s surveillance video.
The suspect, later identified as 21-year-old Jose Aguilar-Martinez, hit two other vehicles while fleeing the store and was later found still inside the car, parked in a nearby neighborhood.
The sheriff’s office said Waldecker was pronounced dead at the scene. Aguilar-Martinez was charged with carjacking and ordered held without bond. Police said additional charges are “anticipated.”
The Times said that Waldecker worked at a nursing home in Rockville Maryland and had been visiting her mother prior to the carjacking.
“We are in complete shock and ask that you please keep our family in your prayers. We may bicker and fuss but we sure know how to come together when it’s needed,” her daughter, Becky Nathanson, wrote on Facebook. “Our hearts are broken and we will never be the same.”
According to WRC, Waldecker was a mother of four and grandmother of eight.
