Man chases down, tackles Kroger purse snatcher
By Ashley Kirklen
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LEMON TOWNSHIP, Ohio (WLWT) — What started as a typical Sunday grocery store run for two people quickly turned into a traumatic experience.
Surveillance footage at the Kroger on Oxford State Road in Lemon Township shows a man in a black and yellow jacket chasing a man in the blue jacket out of the store and down to the ground.
“Hearing her voice screaming and her being scared, I just knew I had to do something,” said good Samaritan Deshawn Pressley.
Pressley chased down the purse-snatching suspect Derek Vaughn, but he didn’t stop there. He tussled with the suspected thief who was still holding tightly to the woman’s purse.
The victim is 87-year-old Pat Goins. She was in shock but grateful for Pressley’s bravery.
“He had him on the ground and had his knee on him,” Goins said.
After a few seconds, other customers began to run out to help Pressley. One man grabbed the victim’s purse away from the suspect.
Pressley and other good Samaritans were able to hold the man until police arrived on the scene.
Still shaken up, Goins had a tongue lashing of her own for the suspect.
“I think I was a little bit hurt to think that somebody would do that, and, I told him, I pointed at him and said ‘you know, if you needed something, all you had to do was ask,'” Goins said.
Derek Vaughn was arrested. He faces felony charges of robbery and theft. He’s locked up on $55,000 bond.
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