Employee tackles would be robber

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

A man is in the Mahoning County jail on a robbery charge after police and witnesses said he tried to grab a cash register Thursday from a Fifth Avenue fast-food restaurant and was tackled by an employee.

Police were called to the McDonald’s restaurant, 570 Fifth Ave., about 1 p.m. for a robbery and were told that someone was trying to grab the register.

Before officers got there, they were informed a man was holding the robber down on the ground while awaiting police. Arrested was Michael Orlando Carrillo Matos, 28, no address available by press time.

Alex Jones, who was in the restaurant, said the man reached into the waist of his pants as if he had a gun and tried to grab the register before an employee tackled him.

“This man came up from behind and slammed him [robber] to the ground,” Jones said.

Police on the scene took the man to the jail, where he is expected to be arraigned today on robbery charges in municipal court.

The employee declined to talk to a reporter.

The owner of the restaurant, John Perdue, said in a statement: “The safety and well-being of our customers and employees are our top priorities. While we would not advocate responding in this way to a would-be robbery, we recognize and appreciate the bravery of our employees who reacted to this situation. We continue to cooperate with local authorities in their investigation of this incident and defer all questions to them.”