AKRON, Ohio — Last Thursday, a woman named Danielle was running errands with her three young sons. They had just picked up an Elsa Barbie doll for her little cousin from Target, and decided to head across South Arlington Road in Green to Taco Bell.
Danielle, whose last name 3News is not sharing, knew that it might take a little while for her sons, aged six, five, and two, to decide what they wanted to eat. A warm summer day, she had the windows rolled down, and put her minivan in park in the drive-thru, the only customers in line.
“Right when I started ordering, that's when I heard the car door open, completely unlocked,” she said. “He got in so easy. I looked over and I just saw him sliding into the passenger seat. And there are no words to describe how terrified I was.”
Climbing into her unlocked car was a man the Summit County Sheriff’s Office identified as 44-year-old Mark Carlson. According to the sheriff’s office, Carlson had previously carjacked someone in Akron, but had ran out of gas. From there, officials say he tried to carjack someone else at the BP gas station on South Arlington, before heading next door to the Taco Bell.
“All of a sudden he just turned and he looked at me and he just started jumping over the center console, and he just started coming at me,” Danielle said. “He said nothing. I didn't know what he wanted, I didn't know how to get my kids out of the car.”
Fearing he may have been coming after her children, Danielle fought back, but realized she didn’t have anything to defend herself with. She said Carlson began pushing her, opening the front driver’s side door behind her, and attempting to push her out of the car.
“I was like, ‘I have kids in the back.’ I was like, ‘take the money, take the van, I don't care, just let me and my kids out,’” she said. “And he still continued to say nothing, and we were struggling and I was punching him, I was hitting him. I was doing everything I could as he was trying to slide into my seat as he was pushing me out. I was halfway out of the van.”
Danielle said he then put his foot on the gas, and she grabbed the steering wheel, crashing into the Taco Bell, pinning her between the frame and the car door. Danielle described Carlson driving forwards and backwards, trying to shake her from the car.
“There were no words to describe the amount of pain. It was the worst burning pain being smashed like that. And I just kept yelling at him,” she said. “He was a brick wall. He said nothing. He stared straight ahead. There was no emotion. My kids were screaming in the back for me, and I still hear those screams, and I couldn't help them.”
Danielle yelled for her sons to unbuckle and run, trying to open the back doors of the minivan. However, she was overpowered, falling from the car, Carlson driving away. Inside were her three young sons, Joshua, Adam, and Nicholas.
“He just drove off with all three kids,” she said. “He just drove away with my babies. I couldn't stop it.”
Her two oldest boys managed to jump out of the minivan, running back to their mother. The eldest, Josh, had stayed in the minivan as long as he could, attempting to grab his two-year-old brother from the car.
“He just kept saying, ‘I'm sorry, mom. I'm sorry, this is all my fault,’” Danielle said of Josh’s reaction. “He just kept saying, ‘Nicholas is going to die because of me.’”
According to the Summit County Sheriff’s Office, Carlson took off with the toddler in the car, driving to a Circle K where he left the child, who was then reunited with Danielle. Danielle said an undercover police officer was at the Circle K and helped Nicholas.
While the boys are physically fine, with the exception of a few bruises, the emotional damage has been done.
“They're not sleeping now. They don't want to go to school,” Danielle said. “My middle child is just having horrible nightmares and it just doesn't stop.”
Danielle has a fractured leg, and is grappling with a mix of emotions. She tells 3News she and her boys will participate in trauma therapy, and she’s already signed up for self defense classes to take control and feel empowered, and to be prepared in case there is a next time.
“You’ve got anger, you’ve got guilt that I didn’t do something different, and then you have pure joy that you have your kids, they’re all safe,” she said.
As painful as it is to think about, Danielle said she’s choosing to share her story in the hopes of warning other families to always be alert, and to not let yourself be vulnerable.
“I just don't want to see this happen to another family,” she said. “Don't make yourself vulnerable, just pay attention. Be more aware, even if it's in your hometown, [it] just takes one bad person, wrong time, wrong place.”
Carlson was arrested and is facing a number of charges, including kidnapping. He is being held in the Summit County jail.
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