Good Samaritan helps stop armed carjacker outside Hempfield Walmart

WESTMORELAND COUNTY, Pa. — One person was taken into custody Thursday after a good Samaritan thwarted an attempted carjacking in the parking lot of a Walmart in Hempfield Township, state police said.

Authorities said the victim, a young mother, was near her car with her toddler when a man approached her with a knife and tried to carjack her.

At that point, a good Samaritan stepped in to get the man away from the victim, police said.%

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Joseph Tanyer of Jeannette called it being at the right place at the right time.

"I believe she was the hero. I think she was like a mother bear defending her cub,” he said.

Tanyer told Channel 11 News he heard the woman scream for help, and he jumped into action without thinking.

"That's when she was going, ‘Help me! I don't know this man. I don't know this man.’ She was putting up a fight anyway,” he said.

Tanyer said he reached for the man in the woman’s driver’s seat after the door slightly opened.

“I just opened it and pulled the guy out and threw him onto the ground, and then she started screaming, ‘He has a knife. He has a knife,’” he said.

Tanyer said he tried to detain the man, but he ran back inside the Walmart and into a restroom, where state police arrested him.

Another woman said she noticed the same man following her as she was heading to her car a few minutes before the attempted carjacking.

"I realize he's three-car lengths out on the opposite side of me just walking with me the whole way,” Linay Vargulish said.

She said she pretended to make a phone call for help and lost him.

"I had no idea what he was going to do. He could've robbed me. He could've done any of that. He could've done that to anybody here, and it's scary it was so close to it being me,” Vargulish said.

Officials said the suspect and victim were taken to a hospital for minor injuries due to cuts. The suspect was then taken to jail for warrants that were out for his arrest, sources told Channel 11 News.

Authorities said the suspect, who was identified as Ronald Schissler, will be charged with robbery, unlawful restraint, aggravated assault and kidnapping.

Cox Media Group