COBB COUNTY, Ga. — A mother told Channel 2 Action News she and her kids barricaded themselves into bedrooms when a man wielding a pickax got inside their home last Friday. The mother said her family was separated in the chaos.
“I was sleeping, and somebody broke into my house; (broke) the door, (broke) everything inside the house,” said the woman, who asked to not be identified. “I was running for my life. I don’t know. I heard that person coming, furious, yelling.”
The mother showed Channel 2 Action News the pickax Eric Crawford allegedly used to break into the woman's Powder Springs home on Rosetrace Terrace.
Her son was eating breakfast before work and heard loud noises coming from the back door.
"When we heard him open the door, and get inside, all of us just get inside our room, so we didn’t have a chance to group together," the woman said.
The family ran into different bedrooms, locked the doors and dialed 911.
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When Cobb County police arrived, officers did not find Crawford right away.
"They actually found the suspect in the crawl space," said Sarah O'hara, spokeswoman for the Cobb County Police Department.
The suspect was in the crawl space in the garage.
The man tried to escape when he punched a hole through a laundry room wall. Police said he also dumped gasoline into the crawl space and threatened to kill himself and everyone inside.
"He stated that he was going to take people out with him if it got to that point," O'hara said.
The mother said her two children are traumatized.
Crawford is facing several charges including burglary, terroristic threats and reckless conduct.
"He could have gotten killed, or he could have killed everyone in this house," the woman said.
Police believe Crawford may have been on drugs.
"When he was in the police car, he saw my son, and he was, like, ‘Sir, thank you for not shooting me,’ because he know (sic) what could happen to him," the woman said.
Cox Media Group
