SOUTH BEND — A 70-year-old woman remained hospitalized Monday evening following a harrowing sequence of events that included her holding at gunpoint a man who crashed through her living room window.

"I’m feeling better than I did yesterday," Sandra, who asked that her last name not be used, said from her room at Memorial Hospital, where doctors were treating her for chest pains. "My heart didn’t react too well to this."

Sandra, who lives on Portage Road just south of Auten Road in northern St. Joseph County, said she was fetching wood from her garage about 9 p.m. Sunday when she heard what sounded like several people fighting in the street.

"I had put wood for the fireplace in the wheelbarrow and was coming in when I heard a lot of shouting and loud voices," she said. "I looked over into the road to see what was going on, and about that time a guy comes running around the house."

Sandra said she ran inside and locked the door behind her. She then grabbed her gun and dialed 911, she said.

All the while, the man circled the house, she said, pounding on all of the windows. When he reached the living room window, he crashed through, taking out the television and landing on the floor.

In the 911 tape released by St. Joseph County police, Sandra screams and then yells at the man, "You stay right where you’re at."

After telling the dispatcher what had happened, Sandra said she dropped the phone and confronted the man. She trained the gun on him, she said, and told him not to move. He took a step forward, she said, and she issued a final warning: "If you come any closer, you’re going to be dead."

She then told him to lie on the floor and he complied.

"He was begging for his life," she said. "He just collapsed on the floor and went into the fetal position."

As they waited for police, Sandra said the man explained he broke into the house because he was being chased by "gang members" and feared for his life. He seemed scared, she said.

When the dispatcher told her there had been a car crash nearby, she asked the man about it, and he showed her a wound to his leg.

Still, she wasn’t sure whether to believe his story.

"I didn’t know the guy, so I didn’t know what to believe," she said. "I thought his credibility was kind of ruined when he crashed through the window and crashed into my TV."

At one point, Sandra said, the man seemed to relax and attempted to sit up, but she made it clear he needed to stay down.

"I said ‘No, stay there,’" she said. "‘I’m nervous, I’ve got my finger on the trigger, and this thing might go off.’"

Eventually, county police and Indiana State Police arrived and "yanked (the suspect) off the floor and out the door," she said.

County police spokesman Sgt. Bill Redman said in a news release that the suspect, a 28-year-old South Bend man, told police he was being chased by gang members when he crashed his car at Brick and Portage roads.

However, police said witnesses to the accident didn’t see another car in the area.

The man was treated at an area hospital for a broken leg and then booked into the county jail on suspicion of burglary, resisting arrest and intimidation.

After complaining of chest pains, Sandra was taken to the hospital as well. She expects to be released Monday, she said.

She’s already been thinking of ways to better protect herself.

"I probably won’t go out much at night; I’ll probably get a dog; and I’ll probably put a fence up," she said. "That’s probably about as much as I can do."

Staff writers Laureen Fagan and Sue Lowe also contributed to this report.

Staff writer Erin Blasko:
eblasko@sbtinfo.com
(574) 235-6187