California man crashes car and chases housemates with pickaxe

A California man was reportedly taken to hospital earlier this week after his car crashed into Orange County property and threatened several people – including his roommates – with a pickaxe.

The man, who has not been identified, drove his Kia sedan into a landscaping wall on the 22000 block of Robin Street in Lake Forest, NBC Los Angeles reported.

Photos from the scene show the vehicle tilted on two wheels over the crumbling remains of the brick structure.

The visibly bloodied driver was then caught on neighborhood cameras rushing to the house where he was renting a room. He forces the door open with his body weight before disappearing inside.

” He is afraid. He needs to get into the house as soon as possible, but he entered the wrong password,” house owner Eric Li told KTLA5 about the terrifying incident.

“He tried to use his body to break in.”

Li told the outlet that once his roommate walked in, he chased him into the yard, where he grabbed a large pickaxe.

“He chased me again. So I crossed the street and asked the [neighbor] for help,” he recalls.

The man briefly chased after a neighbor’s gardener before returning to the house, where he was captured on Homeland Security footage trying to cut through the door to another roommate’s bedroom while the individual shouted at help from the other side.

“We were inside working and the gardener came panicking and said someone was chasing him with an axe. And we got out and we heard screams and screams against the house, it sounded like someone was being tortured,” neighbor Andy Lopez told ABC7 of the incident.

The third housemate, who asked not to be named, said he called 911 just as the enraged man burst into the room.

“He kept hitting harder and harder. I noticed he was starting to get tired so I tried to look for a good time when he might want to take a little break from swinging the ax for a second and when he did I opened the door and nice that you disarmed him,” he told KTLA.

By the time the deputies arrived, he continued, he had disarmed his roommate and had the ax in his hand – and the police initially took him for the attacker.

“So I dropped the ax and lay down on the ground and respected them and at that moment the striker came behind me while I was lying on the ground. And he took over the axe,” the horrified roommate explained.

sergeant. Mike Woodruff of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department said officers subdued the ax wielder with non-lethal force before taking him into custody.

“The deputies on site, based on his statement and his behavior, believe he is under the influence of a substance,” he told KTLA.

“At this time, none of the people threatened were injured, and none of the owners or guests of the residence [where he crashed the car] have been hurt. »

Lopez told ABC7 he heard first responders deploying weapons at the man.

“There were terrible screams and screams. And the police came in, pulled out their guns, and we heard five shots. And, apparently, I assume they used non-lethal type ammunition,” he said.

“When they brought the suspect out, he was quite bloody.”