Pregnant Mother Of 6 Killed While Trying To Protect Her Family From Road Raging Driver

On Wednesday, a New York wife and mother of six was mowed down by an angry man after he was asked not to smoke around her children. 

Melissa DeLoatch was outside a convenience store in Rockland County, N.Y., with her husband, Sean and their six children ranging from 11 months to 10 years old, when her husband asked Jason Mendez to stop smoking near his children. The two men ended up in an argument, which prompted Mendez to get in his car and run into the family, back up, and slam into them again, according to police.

Melissa’s brother, James Christopher, told the New York Daily News, “My sister saw him coming at the last second and threw her body in front of the stroller and pushed the kids away. The kids… they had to see their mom get run over, then run over again. He drove over her, reversed and drove (over her) again.”

DeLoatch, her husband and their six children were all rushed to the hospital. The three oldest children were not seriously injured. However, her three youngest children sustained significant injuries from the oncoming car. A family member reported DeLoatch’s 2-year-old daughter suffered a concussion and required leg surgery, her 3-year-old son had a lacerated liver, and her husband and their 11-month-old child remain hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries. Unfortunately, Melissa died at the hospital along with the couple’s unborn child that the family just learned about two days prior.

Mendez was taken down with a stun gun by police after he exited his vehicle with a knife and was arrested and charged with second-degree murder, and seven counts of attempted murder. Arrest records in San Antonio, Texas, where he had recently lived, showed Mendez faced charges of theft, drunk driving, and domestic violence, the Times reported.