Bystanders thwart carjacking attempt in Dayton, wrest knife from suspect

Bystanders wrestled with a man who had a knife and tried to carjack a woman Monday afternoon outside a Kroger store.

“They’re holding him down on the ground right now,” a woman told a 911 dispatcher of the man she said tried to steal her red Mazda just before 4 p.m. at Pinewood Plaza in the 1000 block of South Smithville Road in Dayton.

Police did not identify the suspect, but Eric L. Herron, 63, was arrested at the shopping center and was booked into the Montgomery County Jail on suspicion of aggravated robbery and for a possible parole violation, according to online jail records.

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“This guy just tried to jump in my car and steal it,” the woman said to a 911 operator at the Montgomery County Regional Dispatch Center. “He tried to pull a knife on me.”

The woman said the man threatened her but that she was able to pull him out of her car.

“I was screaming for help,” she said.

A second 911 caller said there were two men who had the suspect restrained while they waited for police to arrive.

“They got the knife out of his hands,” she said.

The woman also could be heard in the call telling the bystanders to stop hitting the man because they had him restrained.

“They’re trying to beat him up,” she told a dispatcher.

Herron’s jail mugshot showed he suffered cuts to his face, but it’s not clear whether he had to go to a hospital for treatment.

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