A 65-year-old woman wielding a pickaxe smashed the windows of a Pasadena home where a grandmother was babysitting her six-week-old granddaughter.
The terrifying incident, which was captured on home security cameras, unfolded Monday afternoon.
“I feel like we lost our safe place,” homeowner Arman Tchoukadarian told KTLA.
Tchoukadarian said his mother-in-law was watching his newborn daughter, who was sleeping in a bassinet near a front window, when the attacker smashed it with a pickaxe, sending shattered glass everywhere.
The grandmother was able to grab the baby from beneath the window just before it was shattered.
“If my mother-in-law didn’t act as fast as she did, my daughter wouldn’t be here,” he said.
That wasn’t the end of the assault, however.
The 65-year-old woman, identified as Beverly Baker, returned several times over the course of a few minutes and wreaked havoc on the home located in the 1700 block of Asbury Drive.
“She broke one window, went back,” Tchoukadarian said. “My mother-in-law came out screaming and yelling to get my attention.”
Security footage shows Baker, a pickaxe swung over her shoulder, marching back up the driveway. After shattering more windows, the 65-year-old shouted an ominous warning.
“Questions? Questions, anyone? I’ll be back. Get out,” Baker can be heard and seen saying as she walks off with the pickaxe across her shoulders.
Pasadena Police later arrested Baker at her home in the 1600 block of Casa Grande Street, just a few blocks over. Investigators said the 65-year-old may have been suffering from mental illness, though that is not confirmed.
“Police found her, nonchalant, walking with a pickaxe on her back, like she’d just finished working with it,” Tchoukadarian told KTLA.
For about a half hour, police said that Baker refused to surrender but was eventually taken into custody and faces charges of felony vandalism.
As for Tchoukadarian, he said his family has been traumatized by the ordeal.
“She needs to be in the right place, getting the right help,” he said. “That’s no excuse to go attack someone’s family, attack someone’s newborn and ruin their dream home, and ruin their life and sanity.
Tchoukadarian estimates Baker caused about $20,000 worth of damage to the home.