Victim In Daycare Owner Hit-And-Run Incident Speaks Out

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- He was dragged for more than eight blocks by a woman on the run after an incident in her Uptown daycare center, and now Salvador Lema is speaking out about how he survived.

Prosecutors say 42-year-old Nataliia Karia tried to hang a one-year-old child on Nov. 20, and told a parent she "couldn't take it anymore." That parent was dropping off a child at Uptown Day Care on Humboldt Avenue just before 10 a.m. He was able to help rescue the toddler.

Karia jumped into a minivan and sped away, hitting Lema near 28th Street and Grand Avenue, dragging him for blocks. A few blocks later at 28th and Park Avenue, she ran over a bicyclist.

Police arrested her less than 15 minutes later as a group of people stopped her from jumping off a bridge over I-94.

Lema says he knows he is lucky to be alive. He says everything happened so fast and he had no time to react.

Speaking through an interpreter, Salvador recounted how he clung to the undercarriage of the gold minivan that hit him and hung on while being dragged for more than eight blocks. He says it's painful to think about that day.

"It's really hard to remember that again," he said.

Lema was on his way to work when he was hit from behind. He says he'd gotten out of his car to see what was going on when it happened.

"She came with the car, and she kind of came over the top of me," he said.

Lema says he remembers screaming for help from the lady behind the wheel of the gold minivan.

"But she didn't stop -- she kept driving," he said.

He says lots of things were going through his mind as he held on.

"I thought I was going to die," he said.

He says the thought of his four children and wife, and that made him fight to live.

"I held on tight to make sure that my head did not hit the ground," Lema said.

Eight blocks later, Karia stopped long enough for Lema to pry himself away from the van's undercarriage.

"I got my chest out and I was trying to escape. It was going over my foot," he said.

Lema suffered burns, cuts and bruises in the incident, along with a foot that needs to be reconstructed. Five surgeries later, he says the accident has changed his life.

"I want to do different things not only for my family, but if I can help other people in the public or community," he said.

Lema worked two jobs to support his four children and wife. He will be out of work for some time. You can donate to his GoFundMe account to help pay for his medical expenses.