A 21-year-old Instacart delivery driver says he has no regrets about tackling and restraining an alleged purse thief despite being bitten and stabbed.
It happened just before 2 p.m. on Chestnut Street in Malden.
Ryan Dos Santos, of Everett, was just about to unload a delivery when he heard a woman screaming for help.
He then recalls seeing the suspect attempting to flee the scene.
The alleged purse thief, identified by police as 26-year-old Jayson Seay of Peabody, is accused of snatching a woman’s purse one street over on Rockland Street.
“He started running. I went after him,” said Dos Santos. “I saw the opportunity, tackled him. [We] went on the ground. He was able to stab my leg, my quad… bit me three times on the left arm.”
A teenage witness recorded on her cell phone as Dos Santos held the alleged thief down on the ground.
Police arrived on scene moments later and arrested Seay on the spot.
“I don’t think it’s that big of a deal. I did what every good citizen should do,” said Dos Santos.
Dos Santos was released from a Boston hospital Monday night hours after he was stabbed in the leg and bitten multiple times in the arm.
“I’m glad he wasn’t hurt worse than he was,” said witness Noreen Toomey. “He did a great job. It was a relief to all of us.”
Toomey called 911 moments before the takedown.
She told Boston 25 News that she saw the alleged thief scaling her back fence while clutching a purse.
“I think he was probably pretty desperate to be a situation like that,” she said.
The purse was returned to the victim in her 30s, who had been walking from a nearby T station.
Police said she suffered some bruises but is otherwise doing okay.
Seay is expected to be arraigned in Malden on Tuesday on several charges.
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