Armed with a warrant, a SWAT team picked him up and took him into custody overnight. His alleged accomplice is already behind bars.
Only Action News was there overnight as police brought in 20-year-old Zinnah Tobert for questioning. The SWAT team took him into custody in the 7000 block of Wheeler Street late last night.
Early Tuesday morning police arrested 22-year-old Terrell Nelson. Police say it was Nelson and Tobert who walked into 51-year-old Edward Whalen's deli Monday afternoon and announced a robbery. Whalen's daughter Ashley was behind the cash register when police say Nelson pulled out a knife, and Tolbert a gun.
Ed Whalen rushed to help his daughter. Ashley tells us, "(My dad's) telling me to come on, come on, go out the back door. As we were going toward the back the guy with the knife came towards me."
Ed Whalen warned the men not to harm his daughter. Police say that's when Nelson went after the deli owner, stabbing him repeatedly.
"Them two ended up in our back alley, or the back hallway, tussling," Ashley explains. "And the guy with the gun had me on the ground. I was trying to get up, and he just kept telling people to get down."
Police say Nelson and Tolbert grabbed some cash and fled. Neighbors soon came forward and identified the pair as the armed robbers who they saw ditching the knife in a nearby sewer.
Whalen's family says it was not the first robbery at the corner deli and so Whalen was going to sell the place in just a few weeks.
"It's one of the reasons he wanted to sell it. Because he didn't want to put up the glass and live like prisoners in his own store. So, he's always been well liked around here," said Whelan's son Jason.
Like Tolbert, Nelson now faces charges of attempted murder, aggravated assault, robbery, and related crimes.
Whalen is still in the hospital, but is expected to make a full recovery.
Get Action News on your website
