A man in a skeleton mask was severely injured in a fight with the people he tried to rob at an apartment complex in Sunnyslope on Friday night, police said.
Police said the masked man, whom they identified as Justin Pare, 33, entered an apartment near Seventh Avenue and Hatcher Road through a kitchen window. The resident of the apartment thought it was a joke until the masked man took out a silver revolver and demanded money, said Sgt. Andy Hill, spokesman for the Phoenix Police Department.
The resident refused and ran out of his apartment into the courtyard area where other neighbors were having a party, and police said the would-be robber chased the victim and then demanded money from the neighbors at the party. The robber then pistol-whipped one of the neighbors, Hill said.
Police said the man who had been chased from his apartment returned with a baseball bat and struck the suspect, causing him to drop two guns. The neighbors then started beating the robber with the bat and a two-by-four, Hill said.
The robber escaped and fled in a 2007 Dodge Nitro. Police found Pare in the car in a parking lot in the 12000 block of North 21st Avenue. Pare had a severe head injury and broken nose and was hospitalized, according to police.
Three people sustained minor injuries in the scuffle. |