Police: Man breaks into home, barricades himself in basement

<p>Police in Linden say an armed man broke into a home and barricaded himself for hours before being apprehended.</p>

News 12 Staff

Dec 10, 2018, 5:30 PM

Updated 1,974 days ago

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Police in Linden say an armed man broke into a home and barricaded himself for hours before being apprehended.
The family, who was completely caught off guard by 50-year-old Willie Wright breaking into their home, is talking today exclusively with News 12 New Jersey.
Albert Fernandez, 17, and his mom, Olga Castellano, were home eating breakfast Sunday around 9:30 a.m. while his dad, Fulgencio Fernandez, had left for work.
In the video, the suspect first hops the fence into their Park Avenue backyard, just off Routes 1 and 9.
A short time later, the suspect is seen on their surveillance video kicking in the basement window, trying to hide from police.
After a several hour standoff, in which the Swat team was brought in, the suspect is finally forced out and taken into custody.
Albert talked with News 12 about he and his mom reacted while eating breakfast and hearing the glass break.
"So we went outside to see if a car is there, you never know," says Albert. "We saw the police pointing towards our basement so we knew something is wrong here and my mom said, 'come on Albert we need to go;' we didn't know what was happening so we came out and we saw the police and they said, 'you guys need to come out of the house,' so we came out of the house." 
According to police, the suspect first assaulted an elderly man at a Shoprite on West Edgar Road, possibly robbing him before taking off in that man's car, leading police on a chase.
Police say the suspect attempted to carjack another vehicle after crashing, but failed.
That's when he took off on foot and broke into the family's basement.
There is no word yet on why his pants were off when caught.
Wright is facing multiple charges including robbery, carjacking and weapons possession.


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