Reader's tip leads to arrest in Paradise

STEVEN M. FALK / Staff photographer
STEVEN M. FALK / Staff photographer
By STEPHANIE FARR, farrs@phillynews.com 215-854-4225
Posted: July 11, 2011

Perhaps he got a good deal on two tickets or stopped in town to grab a cheeseburger.

Whatever his reasons for visiting, homicide suspect Matthew "Mackie" Armstead found himself trapped in Paradise on Saturday, when authorities tracked him to the idyllically named town 10 miles east of Lancaster, Pa.

Armstead is one of two suspects in the June 12 killings of brothers Khary and Jerome Foreman, on Oxford Street near 24th, in North Philadelphia, according to the U.S. Marshals Service.

Police said that Armstead, 34, and Anthony "Sleepy" Lewis shot the Foreman brothers after an argument, the nature of which is not known. Also injured in the shootings was a 33-year-old man, who was hit in the foot by a stray bullet.

After Armstead's photo and an article about his alleged misdeeds ran in Friday's Daily News, a reader in Lancaster called the U.S. Marshals Service and told them that Armstead was staying at the Rodeway Inn in Paradise, said Jim Burke, supervisor of the marshals' Fugitive Task Force.

Armstead, who was staying at the hotel with a 32-year-old woman believed to be his girlfriend, was taken into custody without incident around 9 p.m., according to authorities. The woman was questioned and released, Burke said.

The reader who called in the tip will receive a $1,000 reward, Burke said.

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