Tuesday, July 30, 2013
CAMPBELL
Ryan Dickerson said he simply acted on instinct Monday night, when he disarmed and pinned down a 21-year-old Youngstown man who police say tried to rob the McDonald’s on McCartney Road where Dickerson works.
“I wouldn’t say that I was scared, but I could say that my heart was beating,” the 19-year-old Campbell resident said. “I could definitely feel it.”
Dickerson said the suspect, whom police identified as Alvin Ward, entered the restaurant at about 11:30 p.m., dressed in all black and wearing a ski mask. With a gun drawn, he demanded that the restaurant’s employees take him to the safe, and that’s when Dickerson knew it was now or never.
Dickerson grabbed the gun, which the suspect had stashed in his pocket in order to retrieve money from the safe, and was surprised when part of it caught on Ward’s jacket, breaking the gun into several pieces.
It was a metal cap gun made to look like the real thing.
After briefly wrestling with the suspect, Dickerson was able to put Ward into a choke hold. At that point, when Ward knew he couldn’t move, he began to cry and plead with him, Dickerson said.
“He said, ‘I got a 4-year-old. I got rent due,’” he said. “I said, ‘Dude, that’s what a job is for.’”
For the complete story, read Wednesday's Vindicator or Vindy.com.