VOLUSIA COUNTY, FL – A Holly Hill-area burglary suspect was taken into custody Monday night after deputies responded to several calls about a suspect jumping on a roof, running through yards and breaking into the home of a couple who confronted him in their dining room.
According to authorities, Shawn Loncala, 35, was arrested around 10:15 p.m. after a group of deputies searching the neighborhood spotted him in the area. He ran briefly but was forced to the ground and taken into custody without incident.
Deputies were first dispatched around 9:10 p.m. after a resident in a Holly Hill-area neighborhood off LPGA Boulevard and Nova Road reported hearing someone on her roof. Responding deputies didn’t find anyone on her property, but soon received additional reports of a suspect running throughout the area jumping fences.
About 30 minutes after the initial report, another call came in reporting a break-in at a home on Old Kings Road
“Somebody just came in my house,” the woman told a 911 dispatcher. “He was running, he’s out here in the yard somewhere. My dog is out here chasing him. He pushed my husband down.”
The woman told deputies she was in bed and her husband was in the bathroom when they heard a noise in the dining room and found the suspect standing there. When her husband tried to apprehend him, he pushed him and ran out the front door.
A helicopter was overhead in the area along with a K-9 unit searching throughout the neighborhood. As deputies discussed their next steps in the search, they spotted a suspect matching the description and ordered him to the ground.
The suspect, quickly identified as Loncala, told deputies he had been running for several hours, hopping fences, trying to elude capture on his outstanding warrants. While he appeared to be under the influence of an unknown substance, he claimed he’d been carrying two handguns that he dropped somewhere along the way, and that he’d hoped to engage deputies in a shootout.
Loncala was charged with burglary of an occupied dwelling with assault/battery and battery on a person 65 or older for pushing down the 75-year-old husband of the caller on Old Kings Road. He was also arrested on his active warrant for domestic battery by strangulation and an additional charge of making harassing phone calls, along with violating his probation on prior charges of domestic battery by strangulation, felony battery, false imprisonment and fleeing or attempting to elude law enforcement.
This morning, upon further investigation, deputies found a large plastic bag containing 13.5 grams of crystal meth that Loncala hid in a back yard in the area. Loncala is now charged with possession of methamphetamine in addition to his other charges. He is in the Volusia County Branch Jail with no bond.
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