ROSEVILLE, Mich. – Stephanie Staniszewski put her boys into the back of her Jeep Grand Cherokee to drive them to school. She briefly went back into the house to get something and left the Jeep running.
That's when a carjacker jumped into the driver's seat. Staniszewski ran out of the house and tried to stop him.
"I heard a scream and then I looked out the window. She was hurt. I think she either broke her leg or sprained it or something," said neighbor David Delmotte.
She was run over by the carjacker.
"He put it in gear. Struck her with the car. She went down and he ran her over to get away," said Roseville Police Chief James Berlin.
Staniszewski's 8-year-old son Chester and 6-year-old son Daniel were in the Jeep. The man bailed out on the same street, leaving the vehicle in gear. Just before the vehicle struck a pole, the boys jumped out. One of the boys told his grandmother why the carjacking ended on the same street it began.
"That guy said when he turned around and saw the kids in the car he said, 'Oh boy, am I in trouble.' And that's when he jumped out," said Staniszewski's mother, Andrea Nowak.
Read more: Roseville mom in critical condition after trying to save her kids during a carjacking
The man did not even put the car in park, putting the boys in more danger. Their father, Chester, had left minutes before the carjacking. However, he returned for his cell phone. He found his injured wife and frantic sons who had run back to help her.
"They're pretty traumatized. They want their mom because they had to leave her at the hospital," said Nowak.
Though she made a mistake when she left the boys in the vehicle, her family is not surprised Stephanie would risk her life to protect them.
"She's a fighter. Just like her dad. She never gives up," said her father, Daniel Nowak.
--Stephanie Staniszewski