Police Bodycam Shows Ohio Mom’s Desperate Attempt to Save Baby During Carjacking—‘He Just Kept…’

On September 29, 2021, Ohio police responded to a 911 call involving a stolen vehicle with temporary tags in Whitehall. The situation was critical because the caller, a mother, revealed her one-year-old daughter was still in the backseat. 

Police bodycam footage posted by Midwest Safety on YouTube shows the sobbing mother pleading with officers to save her child. As the thief sped off, the mother grabbed onto the car door to save her child. 

“I had the door open, and I kept saying, ‘my baby’s in there, like.’ He just kept speeding off,” she told the police officers. 

The mother described the individual as a Black man with long dreads and was wearing a black cap and an Advanced America T-shirt. 

Police officers spotted a Black man with long dreadlocks driving at high speeds. After being cornered after a long chase, the suspect crashed the vehicle near Beachwood and fled on foot into a trailer park and a dense forest. Even after deploying K-9 units, police, however, lost track of him. 

Officers recovered the stolen car with the infant inside with no visible injury. The mother, however, injured her ankle and foot while trying to save her daughter by grabbing the car door and was treated by medics.

In the footage, an officer can be seen advising the mother to take her child to the hospital for a thorough checkup. The police also assured the mother that they would collect DNA evidence and try to ID the suspect.

Nine months after the incident, in mid-2022, Isaiah Jackson, 22 at the time, voluntarily walked into the police station to turn himself in after learning there was a warrant for his arrest.

During interrogation, Jackson confessed and said he stole the car purely for transportation to get to work because public transit was too expensive, and he feared becoming homeless again. 

“I don’t know how depression works for you guys but it just got better at me and basically that’s what it was cuz I don’t know how to think rationally when I basically all I feel nowadays is depression and violent fits of rage. If it’s not depression it’s the violent fits of rage if it’s not rage it’s depression,” he said.

“(I did it) just to have a car to get back and forth from work yeah I wouldn’t my priority wasn’t like sell it or to be out here driving it and looking hot…my situation is transportation with the bus or paying to get back and forth for work is cost me more money than it is to get there and make the money,” Jackson confessed, saying, he didn’t notice there was a little kid in the backseat. 

“I couldn’t see the inside of the car, okay, but when the lady opened the door, there was nobody in the driver’s seat, and I didn’t see anybody in the back seat because the windows were up. So I assumed she just left it on and running like thing going to my mind was being homeless again, going back to those cold nights on the street. You feel me that’s the only thing I was thinking about, and just one thing led to another.”

Jackson was charged with kidnapping, theft, failure to comply with an officer, and obstruction. He pleaded guilty to kidnapping and theft in exchange for dropping the other charges, and was sentenced to five years in prison, 4.5 years for kidnapping and six months for theft, served consecutively, and ordered to pay $9,000 in restitution to the car owner. 

He applied for early release after two years, but it was denied due to multiple disciplinary infractions in prison. He is currently serving his time at the London Correctional Institution, with expected release in late 2026. 

The bodycam footage has amassed more than 9.2 million views, with netizens applauding the mother for her courage.

“Shout out to the mother, who despite being incredibly upset manages to provide a prompt and accurate description to the officeR,” one viewer wrote. 

“I have so much respect for that cop telling Mom to get that second opinion from the hospital,” added another. 

A separate commentator said, “What he did was absolutely wrong and stupid, but you gotta have respect that he turned himself in and owned up to what he did.”

A fourth comment read, “So glad the cop said, as a parent, my baby would be going to the hospital. Brain injuries don’t always present immediately; she’s 1 yr old, there’s no knowing how she would react to a concussion, saying “just watch her” is crazy.”

Disclaimer: The Inquisitr could not independently confirm the facts of this incident and is reporting based on the information available within the public video record.