A family in West San Jose is speaking out after a man broke into their home with a machete and held them hostage on Wednesday night, an incident that ended with police shooting and killing the suspect.
In an interview with NBC Bay Area’s sister station Telemundo 48 Thursday, reporter Yomara Lopez talked to the father of the victims, who said that they feared for the worse.
According to the victims, it was a terrifying experience for the two boys and the mother at a home in the 900 block of Boynton Avenue. They said the man pointed a machete at them the whole time and he kept them hostage. They added they didn’t know the suspect.
The man, who didn’t want to be identified, said he was around the corner from his house doing laundry, when he said that he received a call from his wife screaming and saying that the suspect had just broken into their home.
The man said that he ran to the house and noticed the front window was smashed, adding that’s how the suspect got inside.
He said his wife didn’t want to talk because she’s traumatized but said she told him their 8- and 18-year-old sons were watching TV when everything happened.
When the father made it inside the home, he noticed a man he had never seen before with a machete standing in front of his room, he said. He added that he could hear his family screaming.
“He was angry,” the man explained.
The suspect demanded he get the apartment manager or else something bad was going to happen, the father said. He said he went to look for the manager since she lives in the same complex, but she wasn’t home.
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It was then he said police arrived, and he was not able to get back to his home.
The man’s wife said they were held hostage in the closet by the suspect with a machete pointing at them the whole time. The man said his wife saw the suspect also had a metallic pipe and a gun.
San Jose police said they received the call just before 9 p.m. Wednesday. When officers arrived, they tried to negotiate with the suspect.
The man said his wife told the suspect to turn himself in. Police shot the suspect, and he was taken to a hospital, where he later died.
NBC Bay Area and Telemundo 48 tried to call the complex manager a few times and knocked on her door Thursday, but she was not there.
