Cameras were rolling earlier this week for the dramatic chase and arrest after a La Mesa couple stopped a prowler from breaking into their home.
The incident took place around 10:30 Tuesday night on Amaya Drive when the suspect was discovered a block away. Cameras were rolling when police chased him down, then made the arrest.
Minutes before, Devin Pugh and partner, Jacob, were enjoying a regular Tuesday evening when they heard what turned out to be shattering glass.
“I honestly thought the cabinet ripped off the wall and all the dishes were breaking,” Pugh said.
Instead, they discovered a man halfway inside a small window by the dining room table.
“The guy said I need help. I need help,” Pugh said. “Then Jacob said, ‘You need to get out of my house. We had glass everywhere: huge shards tiny slivers and powder.”
By most accounts, the prowler came down the alley next to the apartment and got stuck in the back. With no way out, he tried to go in. Pugh said he grabbed a rock, smashed the window, then tried to get through it, even placing a foot on the wall for support, but he still couldn’t get in. Pugh said the whole ordeal lasted 15 seconds.
“Before you knew it, we had seven cop cars here,” witness Jonathon Nordeman told NBC 7 on Friday. “There were cops all over the place on both sides.”
Nordeman, who lives on the property in front of Devin’s home, ran outside with his wife and daughter. They stayed out on the sidewalk while police searched their house and garage. The police helicopter circling overhead.
“It’s unnerving to think people are trying to break in the back,” Nordeman said.
The suspected prowler ran just around the block from Devin and Jacob’s window to Water Drive near Janfred Way before he was caught.
Police said the suspect, who was the subject of an earlier loitering complaint, ran from police before they could approach.
“I don’t want to get shot — that don’t feel good,” the suspect can be heard saying on the video recording. “You all listen.”
The suspect was bloodied from the broken window but suffered no life-threatening wounds. Devin and Jacob are still pretty shaken up.
“The whole time we are in the living room now, it’s hawk eyes on that window, wondering if he is going to come back,” Pugh said.
La Mesa police are still determining what charges the suspect could face.