State College police arrested a Blair County man accused of breaking into and attempting to rob a borough home before the residents fought him off early Friday morning.
Braxdyn L. Landrum, 25, is charged with felony counts of attempted robbery, burglary and criminal trespass and misdemeanor counts of simple assault, criminal trespass and loitering and prowling at night.
Residents of a home on Crabapple Drive told police at about 2 a.m. Friday that an unknown white male wearing black clothing and a balaclava-style face covering shattered a sliding glass door and entered their living room, according to an affidavit of probable cause.
One resident who heard the commotion confronted the man and began fighting him. Another resident soon entered the room and helped to push the intruder through the glass door, police wrote.
The residents told police that during the altercation, the man said he had a gun, though they did not see it, according to the affidavit.
One of the residents sustained a two-inch laceration to the back of his head, as well as cuts to his knees, shins and feet, police wrote. The other had a swollen abrasion on the side of his forehead and defensive injuries, including cuts and swelling on his knuckles.
Police found the sliding door shattered with glass shards strewn across the floor. They also observed a winder box with a broken lid on the floor, along with two watches that had been inside it. One of the residents told police that the box had been at the opposite end of the room and was moved by the intruder, according to the affidavit.
After State College police issued a “be on the lookout,” Patton Township police officers found a white BMW with no registration plate parked behind the Waffle Shop on West College Avenue, less than a mile from the home, at about 2:30 a.m., according to the affidavit.
The officers discovered a man in black clothing hunched over in the back seat of the car, police wrote. The man, who they identified by his driver’s license as Landrum, had been vomiting, was out of breath and was “incoherent” in his response when asked why he was there and where he had been, according to the affidavit.
Landrum had fresh cuts to his hands, the bridge of his nose, forehead and the top of his bald head, injuries “consistent with being in a recent physical altercation and being forcefully pushed through a broken glass door,” police wrote.
A borough officer also noticed that the tread on Landrum’s boots was the same as that found at the scene, and that the toes of the boots were “freshly scuffed and cut,” consistent with kicking a glass door, according to the affidavit.
A search of the car found shards of glass, black gloves, a black face covering and black sweatshirt.
Landrum was arraigned on Friday night by District Judge Casey McClain and was unable to post $25,000 bail. He is currently incarcerated at the Centre County Correctional Facility.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.
