A man armed with a pick-axe broke down the door of a former roommate's home after crashing a car into the house Monday in the Orange County community of Lake Forest.
The crash was reported just before noon in the 22000 block of Robin Street. The KIA sedan ended up with two wheels on a low landscaping wall in front of the home.
The homeowner was inside the garage with children and came out to see what happened. Witnesses said the driver, armed with a pick-axe he found at the property, started chasing people, the Orange County Sheriff's Department said.
Eric Lee owns the home and had rented a room to the man 10 days ago. Lee said he would greet the man, but received no response.
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The man then started swinging the pick-axe into the home's door.
"I see my door starting to buckle from him hitting it," a resident, who asked not to be identified, said. "He was trying to break into my room with a pick-axe he acquired from my garden. As I was holding the door, I was trying to reason with him at first. Trying to get him to calm down.
"He just kept coming at me. It was progressively more scary."
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The man eventually broke down the door as the resident was on the phone with 911 dispatchers. The resident said he was able to get the axe away from the man during a brief scuffle. He ran from the room just as police arrived at the top of a staircase, he said.
Deputies fired non-lethal rounds at the attacker, still holding the axe, according to authorities. He was taken into custody.
There were no reports of injuries involving residents.
Details about a motive for the attack were not immediately available.
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