YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - The man who broke into a 72-year-old woman's southside home by busting through the front window has been charged with burglary.
Alex Melton, 26, told police he was being chased when he entered the home.
Melton was arraigned Friday afternoon and bond was set at $25,000 cash or surety.
It was on Wednesday night at about 8 p.m. when the elderly woman who lives on Ferndale Avenue, on Youngstown's southside says she was forced to defend herself and her property from the intruder.
The woman was in her living room when she heard the front door rattle and saw a shadow walk past her front window.
Then she heard the glass break. The 72-year-old told police that's when she rushed to her bedroom to retrieve her revolver, and began yelling, "leave me alone" and "get out of here!"
The homeowner says she feared for her life and pulled the trigger, but the gun misfired. The woman says she then pulled the trigger of the gun a second time and a shot was fired.
That's when she called 911, and held the intruder at gunpoint.
She can be heard on the 911 tape telling the 26-year-old male suspect, "You better sit down! You better sit." Then she asks 911 operators if they can hurry and get a police officer to help her.
The 911 operator seems shocked when she realizes the homeowner is face to face with the intruder, and holding him at gunpoint.
"I got him in the kitchen here," the 72-year-old victim says. "What do you mean you have him in the kitchen," the 911 operator responds.
The elderly woman says, "I got him sitting on the floor in the kitchen" and when asked if she has a weapon on him, she says, "Yes I do."
Police arrive immediately to help. According to the police report, the woman who was sitting on her living room couch was extremely upset.
The alleged male intruder was taken by ambulance to the hospital. Police say he was not injured by a bullet, but the broken glass as he came through the homeowner's front window.
Officers in the police report say they had to reassure the southside woman that she did nothing wrong.
On the 911 tape the victim says, "I shot at him because he wouldn't stop. I had to, as old as I am and on oxygen too."
You then hear the 72-year-old tell emergency operators, "I kept yelling stop, stop! He broke my storm window and the other window, he claimed he was being chased."
No charges are expected at this time against the homeowner for protecting herself inside her home.
Detectives are checking out the intruder's story to find out if he was in fact being chased, and if that's why he allegedly invaded a woman's home.
In the arrest report, YPD officers say the suspect was rambling about people trying to kill him and appeared to allegedly be under the influence of some narcotic.
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