Delaware State Police have arrested a man for allegedly causing anotherperson's car to crash while attempting to rob a participant in a drug deal, then telling officersthat he was the victim.The one-vehicle car accident happened around 8:40 p.m. Friday near Christiana Mall in Newark. Troopers found an unoccupied Hyundai with frontend damage that had slammed into a brick wall. Inside, a handgun was lying on the driver's seat.Authorities said that, as they were investigating the scene,41-year-old Middletown man Craig Brown approached and claimed he hadjust been the victim of a robbery that occurred inside the car.Brown allegedly said that he was standing outside the mall when a manarmed with a handgun forced him into the Hyundai, which was being drivenby a second man. According to police, Brown claimed the car crashed after thedriver took ahold of the gun and Brown attempted to wrestle it awayfrom him.Troopers said they first learned Brown's version of the event was not accurateafter reviewing video footage from the mall that contradicted his story.The Hyundai's actual owner then contacted authorities to saythat her daughter's boyfriend, a 26-year-old Wilmington man, hadadmitted to crashing the vehicle. That man told the woman's daughter that hewas, in fact, the victim of an attempted armed robbery inside the car.A further investigation revealed that the 26-year-old man had agreed tomeet Brown at the mall to sell him prescription drugs, police said.Brown allegedly got into the man's car and told him to drive away fromthe area, then pulled out a handgun and demanded all the medicine the man had in his possession.At that point, a struggle for the gun allegedly occurred, causing the26-year-old to crash the car into the wall. Both men fled thescene.Brown turned himself into an Odessa police station Saturday. He is charged with attempted robbery and firearms offenses.Brown is jailed at the Howard Young Correctional institution for lack of $53,000 cash bail.
