Boy, 6, Dies After Being Dragged in a Stolen Car

A 6-year-old boy tangled in a seat belt outside of his mother’s stolen car died Tuesday when he was dragged more than four miles down an interstate highway at high speed.

The boy was “hanging out of the side of the car bouncing” down Interstate 70 as horrified motorists honked their horns and flashed their lights at the fleeing vehicle, said Fred Byam, one of four men who helped capture the man suspected of stealing the Chevrolet Blazer.

Jake D. Robel, 6, of Blue Springs, was killed after he was dragged.

Four men finally surrounded the stolen vehicle after it left the highway and stopped at a stoplight on a busy Independence road.

One of the men got a rope from his car and tied the suspect’s legs when he tried to run.

“He came flying around us, and we saw the kid hanging out the side of the car bouncing,” Byam said.

“I was honking my horn and flashing my lights.”

Brad Byam, Fred’s brother, said, “He was doing probably 80 when he passed us.”

The car was stolen when the boy’s mother left it running while she ran into a shop to get a sandwich.

Police said that the suspect had pushed the boy from the car.

The Byam brothers pulled their truck in front of the stolen vehicle, and a car and another truck pulled up behind.

The suspect got out of the stolen vehicle and mumbled “something like ‘I didn’t do that,’ ” said Brad Byam.

The suspect then crashed the stolen vehicle into the Byam truck and backed into the car behind before trying to run on foot.

The men then wrestled him to the ground and waited for police to arrive.

Workers at the sandwich shop said the suspect had been hanging around and that they had become suspicious of him.

The suspect was in custody at the Independence Police Department.