Jaded
January 12th, 2009, 10:59 PM
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This next story will make you wonder, how well do you know your neighbors? One Sioux Falls neighborhood is recovering from the shock of what happened Friday night. KDLT’s Safeer Saini talks to one woman who says she called police after her neighbor tried to cause mass destruction, with a shovel.
Neighbor Lacey Dejager says, "It was crazy. I had just got home less than ten minutes of sitting down to relax and all the sudden there's a huge commotion in my garage!"
Lacey Dejager says she went to check it out and was horrified to see her next door neighbor on a rampage.
Dejager says, "The first thing he did was kick in the door and broke the door completely...."
She says her neighbor, 25-year old Robert Michael Strozdas, then went on to break both glass windows on her garage and continued on toward other homes in the area of south Duluth and 28th streets.
Dejager says, "I saw him walking away from my house but there was no way I was going to stop him. I was like, if he's lost it, there's no way I'm going to try and be a mediator."
Police say Strozdas reportedly used a shovel to break the windows off of garages and homes that belonged to three of his neighbors; including this home with all of it's front windows now boarded up.
Dejager says, "What his attempt was, I guess, was to burn down the entire neighborhood is what the police told my roommate."
Strozdas never got that far. Once police arrived, they were his shovel's next target.
Sam Clemens, Sioux Falls Police Dept. says, "He was holding it like a baseball bat and started coming at the officers. He was pepper sprayed. Eventually they were able to gain some compliance over him but he wasn't cooperative."
Neighbors say they've had a few interactions with the suspect, just to know he was a little off but they never knew it would amount to this.
Dejager says, "He's the only neighbor I ever met. So it's really weird that the one I happened to meet ends up being the crazy one."
Police say Strozdas already had an outstanding mental warrant for his arrest. After this incident, he was also charged with two counts of aggravated assault on police officers and felony intentional damage to property.
http://www.kdlt.com/news/0112n2.html
This next story will make you wonder, how well do you know your neighbors? One Sioux Falls neighborhood is recovering from the shock of what happened Friday night. KDLT’s Safeer Saini talks to one woman who says she called police after her neighbor tried to cause mass destruction, with a shovel.
Neighbor Lacey Dejager says, "It was crazy. I had just got home less than ten minutes of sitting down to relax and all the sudden there's a huge commotion in my garage!"
Lacey Dejager says she went to check it out and was horrified to see her next door neighbor on a rampage.
Dejager says, "The first thing he did was kick in the door and broke the door completely...."
She says her neighbor, 25-year old Robert Michael Strozdas, then went on to break both glass windows on her garage and continued on toward other homes in the area of south Duluth and 28th streets.
Dejager says, "I saw him walking away from my house but there was no way I was going to stop him. I was like, if he's lost it, there's no way I'm going to try and be a mediator."
Police say Strozdas reportedly used a shovel to break the windows off of garages and homes that belonged to three of his neighbors; including this home with all of it's front windows now boarded up.
Dejager says, "What his attempt was, I guess, was to burn down the entire neighborhood is what the police told my roommate."
Strozdas never got that far. Once police arrived, they were his shovel's next target.
Sam Clemens, Sioux Falls Police Dept. says, "He was holding it like a baseball bat and started coming at the officers. He was pepper sprayed. Eventually they were able to gain some compliance over him but he wasn't cooperative."
Neighbors say they've had a few interactions with the suspect, just to know he was a little off but they never knew it would amount to this.
Dejager says, "He's the only neighbor I ever met. So it's really weird that the one I happened to meet ends up being the crazy one."
Police say Strozdas already had an outstanding mental warrant for his arrest. After this incident, he was also charged with two counts of aggravated assault on police officers and felony intentional damage to property.
http://www.kdlt.com/news/0112n2.html