NewsRegionDetroit

Actions

Neighbors join husband's chase to stop suspect who'd just ambushed his wife to rob her

Posted at 5:35 PM, Jun 12, 2019
and last updated 2019-06-12 18:13:34-04

DETROIT (WXYZ) — "After everything was said and done, I went and thanked the neighbors on Longview and across the street," said Verna Lindsey, 60, about the people who helped nab the man who had just ambushed her outside of her house on Detroit's east side.

Verna was returning home from the store Monday afternoon when a man ran up behind her, grabbed her around the neck, and demanded she hand over everything of value.

Verna said she started hollering and kept hollering as the man grabbed her other arm. She said she made such a commotion, the man eventually let go, jumped on a bike, and took off.

Verna ran inside the house to get her husband Darrel. He works nights and was sleeping and didn't hear her cries for help.

Darrel hopped up, got into his car to go after the man and alert neighbors.

"I wasn't going to let him get away because I had a good eye on him," Darrel told 7 Action News. "I just let neighbors know he assaulted my wife."

One neighbor said the suspect ran up to some vacant houses, hoping to hid but they had been boarded up.

Darrel and three of his neighbors continued to chase the suspect for nearly a mile until they were finally able to tackle him to the ground.

"We tied his shoestrings together until the police got there," said one neighbor. "We stood around him and told him he couldn't go anywhere."

On Wednesday, the suspect, 23-year-old Marcus Hager, was charged with unarmed robbery.

Verna just so thankful for her neighbors and her husband. "That's my hero and he got him."