How a group of good Samaritans helped police catch robbery suspect in Milltown

Alexis Marioni-Calvarese and her husband, Nick Calvarese, were in the Walgreens at Milltown Shopping Center on Thursday morning when they heard screaming coming from the parking lot.

The couple got into their car and drove to the source of the sound, which was coming from outside the nearby Valero gas station.

There, they found one man holding another down on the ground in an attempt to restrain him. Others in the parking lot were screaming that the restrained man, later identified by Delaware State Police as a 53-year-old from Wilmington, had tried to rob a woman at the gas pumps.

The other man “looked like he needed help,” Calvarese said, so he jumped out of the car to assist. His wife moved into the driver’s seat to repark their car nearby before exiting to help the woman whom the 53-year-old is accused of robbing. The woman had cuts on her hands and left arm, Marioni-Calvarese said.

State police confirmed that the woman was injured when the 53-year-old “forcefully” took her cellphone and tried to run away. When he was first pinned by a good Samaritan, police said, he threw the stolen phone away, damaging it.

Calvarese said he and another man held the 53-year-old down for what felt like 10 minutes until police arrived. The man “wouldn’t stop resisting,” Calvarese said, and it took three people to restrain him.

Calvarese said the incident “hit close to home.”

“That could have been my wife,” he said. “People need to stop grabbing their phones and videoing and do something or this will just keep happening.”

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Police arrived on the scene at 11:18 a.m. and took the 53-year-old into custody. The man was injured by the good Samaritans, according to police, and was taken to the hospital. Police said the man was “disorderly” and resisted help, kicking an EMT on the ambulance and minorly injuring a hospital staff member.

The man was charged with second-degree robbery, a felony, and three misdemeanors. He remains in Department of Correction custody.

Send story tips or ideas to Hannah Edelman at hedelman@delawareonline.com. For more reporting, follow them on X at @h_edelman.