Hero dad who stopped carjacker who fled with his kids identified
A fundraiser has been launched for a Burnsville man after he stopped a carjacker who had left with his four children in the car.
Derek Gotchie was dropping off gifts at a friend’s house on the 800 block of Russell Avenue North in Minneapolis on Wednesday.
As Gotchie was closing the trunk, a suspect ran up and got into the truck. The suspect then began to drive away with his four children,
“I'm shutting the trunk this guy jumps out of this taxi minivan, runs to my truck. I run to the door of my truck and I try and open it and he just takes off," Gotchie told WCCO.
Gotchie then got into the suspect’s SUV, which was also stolen, and pursued his truck. He eventually rear-ended his own truck at Plymouth Avenue North and Penn Avenue North, with the suspect getting out and running away.
Police told WCCO a suspect has not been arrested but that they were able pull fingerprints from the SUV.
The four children were unharmed, but a GoFundMe campaign has been launched to support the family following the incident.
“We’d like to make them as comfortable as possible while dealing with this traumatic experience,” it reads.
“Anything will help; they’ll be able to cover insurance expenses, get any help they might need for processing trauma, buy groceries, make the kiddos as comfy as possible, and because they’re going to be missing work while processing this, etc.”
As if Saturday, the fundraiser has reached just over $3,100 of its $4,000 goal.
