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Sam Penrod ReportingAn Orem man came to the rescue of his neighbors who were the victims of a home invasion robbery.
When the man heard a disturbance in his neighborhood early Saturday morning, he went outside to see what was going on. But the man quickly found himself in the middle of a melee. His wife called 911 as the suspects tried assaulting him.
The motive for this home invasion robbery is still unclear. While investigators sort that out they have four people in jail thanks to an Orem man who came to his neighbor's rescue.
Just after midnight on Saturday morning, Russell Selman saw people standing on his porch. When he opened the door to see what they were doing, five people all wearing ski masks pushed their way inside.
Russell Selman, Robbery Victim: “Right here you can see the door. They roughed up my door pretty bad. They came in and tipped over my entertainment center, came through, ransacked through the house, tore everything apart.”
The commotion caused one of the victim's neighbors to come outside to see what was going on. He saw the people wearing ski masks running away, but one of them tried to hit him, which turned out to be a bad idea.
Clawson, Victim's Neighbor: “The guy on the ground, when I first had him down, got all scared and said, ‘You’ve got the wrong person, I didn’t do anything.” Yet he has a ski mask on and gloves on and he’s telling me with a ski mask after he’s yelled and swore at me and threatened to kill me that I’ve got the wrong person.”
While his wife called police, Clawson asked her to get his gun. That's when the other suspects came back to help their partner in crime.
Clawson: "Even though they saw me with a sidearm and even after I racked it in front of them, they just tried getting closer and sneaking around behind me."
Several police officers arrived shortly thereafter and arrested the suspects. Police credit the neighbor for helping to keep crime off his street.
Lt. Doug Edwards, Orem Police Dept.: "We don't encourage people to get involved and try to make arrests with handguns as he did, but I think under the circumstances he was backed into that situation and did a very good job."
Police arrested 18-year old Casey Ortega, 22-year old Jamie Potter, 19-year old Tony Doyle and 19-year old Radience Whigham. One juvenile was also arrested and one suspect is still on the loose. All face aggravated burglary charges.
