Ax-Wielding Man Captures Home Invader, Cops Say

PINELLAS PARK, FL — A 17-year-old St. Petersburg boy faces multiple criminal charges after a Wednesday morning home invasion in Pinellas Park.

According to the Pinellas Park Police Department, its officers were called to a home invasion in progress in the 6000 block of 80th Avenue North around 9 a.m. Aug. 30. When they arrived, they found the teenager being “detained by the homeowner Alexander McMaster,” 40, an email from the agency said. McMaster was using a full-length ax to keep the boy inside his home until authorities arrived.

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Police later learned the teen, who is not being named by Patch due to his age, left the Richard L. Sanders School early Wednesday morning and “began wandering the neighborhood where the incident took place,” the email said. A neighbor reported seeing the teenager near her open garage door. Police say she yelled him off, but when she did, the boy went to McMaster’s home.

Once there, the teen knocked on the door, which was opened by McMaster’s girlfriend, Christina Robles, 33.

Robles later told police the teen asked for directions to a park. When she said she didn’t know and tried to close the door, the boy “grabbed Robles by the throat and began chocking her, and slamming her head into a wall,” the email said. The teen is also accused of punching Robles in the head and boy before her screaming rousted McMaster from his sleep.

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McMaster and the teen got into a struggle, the agency reported. At some point, McMaster grabbed the ax that was being used to prop open a window “and he held the ax to keep (the teen) from getting out of the house.”

The boy now faces home invasion robbery, felony battery and two counts of simple battery charges. Police say Robles suffered minor injuries.

No further information is available at this time.

Image via Shutterstock