Pickax-Wielding California Woman Attacks Home Where A Grandmother Is Babysitting An Infant
A pickax-wielding woman was arrested after she shattered several windows of a house in Pasadena, California, Monday afternoon. The home's occupants — a grandmother and a 6-week-old baby — escaped unscathed mainly due to the grandma's quick action.
The suspect, identified as 65-year-old Beverly Baker, walked up to the property, swinging a pickax. She went on to break down several windows as she paced across the porch. The incident was captured on a ring camera. The terrified grandmother's screams can be heard in the video.
The home belonged to Arman Tchoukadarian, who spoke about how his mother-in-law saved his daughter. "I get the notification from our doorbell and it's like a two-second clip of someone just smashing our door," he told ABC7 Eyewitness News.
Baker smashed the front window, and the grandmother was quick enough to grab the baby from the bassinet placed right underneath before it shattered. Baker left the property momentarily and then returned several times to destroy other windows.
The suspect issued a warning to the residents, saying, "Questions? Questions, anyone? I'll be right back, get out," according to KTLA.
"My mother-in-law's first instinct was to grab the baby," Tchoukadarian said, noting that his baby's bed was strewn with glass pieces in the aftermath of the incident, as per ABC7 Eyewitness News.
"Two seconds later, all you see is huge shards of glass in the bassinet where she would be. It was miracle she reacted fast enough or else my daughter would be dead," he continued.
The Tchoukadarian residence has been left inhabitable after the attack. Eight windows were torn down by Baker, and the family is currently camped up at another location.
They had recently moved into the house, and the incident has shaken them up. "We bought this house from scratch. We put all our savings into this house because it's a nice neighborhood. We grew up here, and this is how we get welcome to the neighborhood," Tchoukadarian said further, adding that he's working on filing a restraining order against Baker soon.
Baker left the property after damaging the windows. Neighbors helped police to track her down. She owns a property in the immediate vicinity of the Tchoukadarian residence, but it wasn't immediately clear if they knew each other.
The suspect was taken into custody from her home in the 1600 block of Casa Grande Street after a 30-minute standoff.
"It doesn't appear there was any relation between the suspect, Mrs. Baker, and the victims," Commander Bill Grisafe with Pasadena Police said, according to the outlet.
Baker appeared to have been "suffering some type of mental health crisis," Grisafe added, although this is yet to be confirmed.
Baker, who faces charges of felony vandalism, will be arraigned Wednesday. The damages she allegedly caused the Tchoukadarian residence amount to $20,000.
In similar news, a hatchet-wielding man terrorized people at a McDonald's outlet in New York's Lower East Side. He walked up to diners and intimidated them while pointing the ax directly at them.
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