Leominster man arrested after alleged knifepoint robbery on Rail Trail

LEOMINSTER — On Friday, August 29, 2025, Leominster Police Officer Noah DeCesare was working his assigned post, “Whiskey 2,” when he responded to ReadyMED on North Main Street following a report of an armed robbery involving a knife that had occurred on the Rail Trail.

(The account and quotations in this article were sourced from the printed Personnel Narrative of Officer Noah DeCesare and do not reflect any political perspective or personal opinion of News Link Live, which is strictly a business entity.)

“Officers [Nicholas] Rice, [Braden] Carlson, and [Tiffany] Craven responded to the Rail Trail in the area of North Main Street and Erdman Way to locate the suspect in the robbery described to be a male wearing a hoodie and holding two bags, as this was the last location where the reporting party saw the suspect,” Officer DeCesare said.

Officer DeCesare said that upon his arrival, he met with the reporting party, identified as Dylan [last name redacted], who had initially told dispatch that he was robbed at knifepoint.

“Dylan informed me that he was walking on the Rail Trail in the area of North Main Street when an individual, whom he described as a Hispanic male with facial hair wearing sweatpants and a white hoodie, was sitting on the wooden guardrail along the rail trail with two bags,” Officer DeCesare said. “This individual, who was later identified as Jose Luis Martinez-Pizarro, then approached [Dylan], informing him that he had stolen the pants he was wearing from him before brandishing a knife from his hoodie pocket.”

According to police, Jose Luis Martinez-Pizarro, 27, is a resident of North Main Street, Leominster, MA.

“[Dylan] claimed that Mг. Martinez-Pizarro then reached into his pockets and removed his cell phone, charger, wallet, and headphones while holding a knife described as having a red flag/bandana wrapped around the handle down by his waist, which placed him in fear of being stabbed and deprived him of his personal belongings,” Officer DeCesare said. “The overt act of displaying a knife/dangerous weapon, threatening battery/causing fear, while taking personal belongings from another person, would make a reasonable and prudent person believe they were being permanently deprived of their items due to the amount of force being used to take such items.”

Officer DeCesare said that Dylan informed him that he was accused of having taken Martinez-Pizarro’s property, but his friend, “Jacob,” was the actual person who had taken his property.

“[Dylan] stated that he had never seen Mr. Martinez-Pizarro before and that Mr. Martinez-Pizarro had not seen him before today either,” Officer DeCesare said. “He claimed that his friend, whom he could not further identify other than by the name ‘Jacob,’ took clothes from the bag discovered in the woods, but stated that he himself didn’t take anything. I perceived this information to be deceptive, as it was still unclear how and why Mr. Martinez-Pizarro would accuse and identify [Dylan] as the person who had taken his stuff, just based on the fact that he is friends with ‘Jacob’ (who was stated to be the one who took his items), and that he himself was stated to have never been seen by Mr. Martinez-Pizarro before.”

Officer DeCesare said that Dylan then disclosed that he was, in fact, wearing Martinez-Pizarro’s pants, which he had found unattended in the woods and that the knife involved in the altercation was actually his.

“[Dylan] stated that Mr. Martinez-Pizarro removed the knife from the waistband of his pants and then took his phone, wallet, phone charger, and headphones before demanding that he give him back his pants,” Officer DeCesare said. “[Dylan] still claimed to be in fear of being stabbed by his own knife.”

Officer DeCesare said that at that time, Officers Rice and Carlson informed him they had located Martinez-Pizarro in a tent within a homeless encampment in the wooded area off the Rail Trail near North Main Street and Hamilton Street. They reported that Martinez-Pizarro was in possession of a phone, phone charger, and wallet containing Dylan’s ID.

Officer DeCesare then gave Dylan a ride in his cruiser to conduct a show-up to positively identify Martinez-Pizarro, who had been detained by the other officers as a suspect in the incident. (A “show-up” is a police procedure where a suspect is presented individually to a witness shortly after a crime has occurred to determine if they recognize the suspect as the person involved.)

“After driving past Mr. Martinez-Pizarro, who was detained and seated at the back of one of the other officer’s marked cruisers, [Dylan] positively identified him as the suspect,” Officer DeCesare said. “I then spoke with Mr. Martinez Pizarro, reading him his Miranda warnings before questioning him on the matter. Mr. Martinez Pizarro stated that he had stopped [Dylan] on the Rail Trail because he had seen him wearing his pants that had been stolen.”

Martinez-Pizarro claimed that he approached Dylan and told him he had his property. When he noticed that Dylan had a knife in his waistband, he became nervous about this, but was reassured when Dylan told him he could take the knife because he wouldn’t use it. Martinez-Pizarro said he took the knife, after which Dylan returned his belongings—his phone, wallet, and charger—along with the stolen pants.

“[Dylan] was said to have left the area and returned with more clothes, as he had more of Mr. Martinez Pizarro’s property,” Officer DeCesare said. “As Mr. Martinez-Pizarro was still missing other items, [Dylan] then left again to retrieve the rest of his stuff, but Mr. Martinez-Pizarro was no longer in the area, which he believed was why [Dylan] called the police, as he still had his phone and other things.”

Officer DeCesare said that Mr. Martinez-Pizarro denied taking anything from Dylan other than the knife, which he claimed he had been permitted to remove. He also denied threatening Dylan and stated that the other items were given to him voluntarily.

“I informed Mr. Martinez-Pizzaro that he was being placed under arrest. Officer Rice then transported him to the station to be booked,” Officer DeCesare said. “Officer Carlson recovered all of [Dylan’s] property, which was located with Mr. Martinez-Pizarro when he was detained. All property was returned to [Dylan], other than his knife, which I submitted into Evidence Locker 006 as it was used in a crime.”

Jose Luis Martinez-Pizarro was charged with the following (Officer DeCesare’s reasoning for the charges are provided in quotations):

• Assault with a Dangerous Weapon (to wit, knife): “Mr. Martinez-Pizarro held a knife by his waist, displaying it to [Dylan], putting him in fear of being battered with said knife.”
• Unarmed Robbery: “Mr. Martinez-Pizarro took and carried away [Dylan’s] phone, wallet, phone charger, and headphones, which he had on his immediate person by assault and putting him in fear.”

Martinez’s bail was set at $1,000.

Martinez-Pizarro was arraigned in Leominster District Court on September 2, 2025. Following his arraignment, he was released on bail under the condition that he stay away from the victim.

Martinez-Pizarro’s next court date is a pretrial conference scheduled for Oct. 2, 2025.

Disclaimer: If you are wondering why the incident in this story took place in August, that’s because I had to file FOIA request(s) to obtain the court documents. FOIAs are time-consuming.

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