Holly MatkinEast Haven, CT – A quick-thinking homeowner managed to fend off an armed robbery attempt at his home after a suspect posing as a deliveryman showed up on his front porch (video below).
The incident occurred at a residence on Maple Street at approximately 9:45 a.m. on April 15, the East Haven Police Department (EHPD) said in a press release later that day.
Ring camera footage showed a man wearing an orange safety vest as he approached the front door with a package in his hand.
He was later identified by police as 37-year-old Xavier Otero.
When a man answered the door, Otero told him the package was possibly for him, then pulled out a gun and tried to force his way into the residence, the video showed.
But the homeowner was able to shove the would-be intruder back from the doorway and out onto the porch.
Otero lost his balance and nearly fell down the front steps before he scurried off to a silver pickup truck waiting for him out on the street, the video showed.
He jumped into the rear passenger side of the vehicle before it sped off down the roadway.
East Haven police responded to the neighborhood to search for the suspects, but came up empty-handed.
Investigators then posted still photos of the suspect on its Facebook page in an attempt to identify him.
“Soon after, tips began coming in,” the police department noted in an update on April 15.
Officers with the Investigative Services Division tracked Otero down at a family member’s home on Bellevue Street in Hartford and took him into custody without incident.
Police said they discovered Otero and his accomplice were planning to restrain the occupants of the home with zip ties so they could rob them.
They said they also learned the duo was allegedly planning to carry out a second home invasion at a residence in Manchester.
Investigators located the suspect vehicle parked outside a home on New Britain Avenue in Hartford a short while later and obtained a search warrant for the residence due to “the possibility of another home invasion” being “imminent,” the EHPD said.
They were surveilling the house when the second suspect walked over to the truck and jumped inside.
Police detained him and subsequently confirmed he was involved in the attempted home invasion in East Haven, according to the press release.
The second suspect has been identified as 26-year-old Jean Carrasquillo-Torres.
Investigators executed the search warrant at the home on New Britain Avenue and allegedly located more than one kilogram of suspected fentanyl, as well as “items commonly used in the operation of a drug factory,” such as a hydraulic press, the EHPD said.
Police said they also found a bagful of heavy-duty zip ties inside the same room.
Otero has been arrested on charges of home invasion, criminal possession of a firearm, threatening the first degree, and criminal attempt to commit unlawful restraint.
Carrasquillo-Torres was charged with conspiracy to commit unlawful restraint in the first degree, conspiracy to commit home invasion, and weapons and narcotics-related offenses.
Watch the incident unfold in the video below:
Sandy Malone