(UT) Police credit armed neighbor with help in arrests 08-04-03

http://tv.ksl.com/index.php?nid=5&sid=41371

Orem Neighbor Comes to Rescue
Aug. 4, 2003
Sam Penrod Reporting

An Orem man came to the rescue of his neighbors who were the victims of
a home invasion robbery.

When the man heard a disturbance in his neighborhood early Saturday
morning, he went outside to see what was going on. But the man quickly
found himself in the middle of a melee. His wife called 911 as the
suspects tried assaulting him.

The motive for this home invasion robbery is still unclear. While
investigators sort that out they have four people in jail thanks to an
Orem man who came to his neighbor’s rescue.

Just after midnight on Saturday morning, Russell Selman saw people
standing on his porch. When he opened the door to see what they were
doing, five people all wearing ski masks pushed their way inside.

Russell Selman, Robbery Victim: “Right here you can see the door. They
roughed up my door pretty bad. They came in and tipped over my
entertainment center, came through, ransacked through the house, tore
everything apart.”

The commotion caused one of the victim’s neighbors to come outside to
see what was going on. He saw the people wearing ski masks running away,
but one of them tried to hit him, which turned out to be a bad idea.

Clawson, Victim’s Neighbor: “The guy on the ground, when I first had him
down, got all scared and said, ‘You’ve got the wrong person,
I didn’t do anything.” Yet he has a ski mask on and gloves on and he’s
telling me with a ski mask after he’s yelled and swore at me and
threatened to kill me that I’ve got the wrong person.”

While his wife called police, Clawson asked her to get his gun. That’s
when the other suspects came back to help their partner in crime.

Clawson: “Even though they saw me with a sidearm and even after I racked
it in front of them, they just tried getting closer and sneaking around
behind me.”

Several police officers arrived shortly thereafter and arrested the
suspects. Police credit the neighbor for helping to keep crime off his
street.
Lt. Doug Edwards, Orem Police Dept.: “We don’t encourage people to get
involved and try to make arrests with handguns as he did, but I think
under the circumstances he was backed into that situation and did a very
good job.”

Police arrested 18-year old Casey Ortega, 22-year old Jamie Potter,
19-year old Tony Doyle and 19-year old Radience Whigham.
One juvenile was also arrested and one suspect is still on the loose.
All face aggravated burglary charges.