KHOU/Fox News Digital
After allegedly assaulting the pastor's elderly neighbor with dementia, video shows the suspect hop into a truck, drive into another neighbor's home and speed off; he was later arrested.
A Houston, Texas pastor is being hailed a hero after confronting a man accused of assaulting his elderly neighbor.
Shane Jennings, 54, was arrested and is facing a slew of charges -- including burglary, theft, aggravated assault and assault of a public servant -- following an incident on June 15. According to victim Sharon Koehn, via KTRK, Jennings showed up at her home first asking for a glass of water, before then requesting to use the bathroom and then forcing his way into her and her husband Earl's house when she refused.
She claims he then "shoved" her husband, who has dementia, to the floor ... as she began to cry for help. She also told KHOU that Jennings pulled out a metal shiv during the altercation, at which point she "ran out of the door screaming." Her neighbor, pastor Heath Haynes, was inside his own home with his wife and heard her screams.
"I started running over [to the neighbor’s home], thinking I'm responding to the medical emergency," Haynes told Fox News Digital. "And then she starts yelling as she's coming down the sidewalk that [a suspect] is attacking her husband. So kind of switched gears, to 'OK, this is not medical emergency. This is an attack.'"
Haynes said the suspect was still inside Koehn's home, going through Earl's pockets, when he arrived. Jennings then went out the back door, as Haynes started recording the confrontation on his cell phone.
"Hey, what do you think you're doing man?" Haynes is seen asking Jennings in video above, as the suspect tells him, "I'm not doing anything."
"You're beating that man up," Haynes then says, before trying to get Jennings to drop the keys in his hands and chasing after him. "He's on the ground with a freaking coat rack over his head. Drop the stuff right now. Drop it," he shouts, "Every bit of it. You're trying to take his car!"
"I didn't take s---. I did not do anything to him," Jennings says, before telling Haynes to "stop pushing" him because he "can't even breathe." Haynes' response: "How do you think he feels?"
The suspect was able to break free from Haynes and hop into Koehn's pickup truck (above).
But, since the truck was blocked by another vehicle, Jennings took an alternate route -- driving straight through a fence and around a neighbor's back yard, before slamming into another car in that person's driveway and sideswiping their home in the process.
He was eventually able to push past the obstacles and drove off. According to KTRK, Jennings was apprehended several hours later and allegedly hit a law enforcement vehicle during a brief chase.
Speaking with Fox News Digital, Haynes credited his faith and "divine intervention" for calling him into action. He also told the outlet the elderly couple didn't suffer any serious injuries.
Sharon Koehn, meanwhile, told KTRK that, if it hadn't been for Haynes, "we'd probably be dead."
Jennings is due back in court on July 19.
