Crystal City resident Andrew Miller said his family were the victims of a recent attempted home invasion, and their neighbor, DJ LaBrot, helped thwart the would-be intruder.
Miller, 41, said he was not home on the evening of Feb. 6 when a man attempted to violently break into his home while his wife, Jamie, 40, and daughter Grace, 16, were there alone. Their son Joseph, 18, also was away from the home at the time.
A man reportedly hopped their backyard fence, got onto their deck and attempted to get into their home through the back door. When the man found the door locked, he allegedly tried to force his way in.
“The man tried to break down our sliding door by repeatedly ramming it with our patio table,” Miller said.
Jamie and Grace heard the man screaming that someone with a gun was coming after him and trying to kill him. Jamie told the man to leave, but when he continued trying to break in, she and her daughter decided to flee the home and call the police.
Fortunately, Miller said, his family’s neighbor, LaBrot, 43, heard the commotion and helped.
LaBrot said he and his wife, Jessica, 39, typically watch loud Westerns or war movies during the evenings, but by luck turned off their TV early that night, just a few minutes before the attempted invasion. He said he heard his normally quiet neighbors screaming and knew something was wrong.
“They’re very soft and kind people and in all the years that we’ve lived next to each other, they’ve never made a sound,” LaBrot said. “You know another human is in danger. Something perked up that something wasn’t right.”
LaBrot, a surveyor and father of six, quickly went outside to see if his neighbors needed help and saw Jamie and Grace running out their front door and the intruder watching the mother and daughter fleeing. LaBrot said he told his two neighbors to take shelter in his home with his wife while he confronted the intruder.
“I didn’t want him to get any closer to them and definitely didn’t want him to get into my home,” LaBrot said. “He zoned in on them, and that’s when I had the hair stand up, like, wait a minute, this guy could be like trying to murder them.”
LaBrot said he had a gun for defense but didn’t believe the man had any weapons so decided to fight him hand to hand instead. Even after hitting the suspect several times, LaBrot said the man kept trying to come into LaBrot’s yard. Knowing the police had been called, LaBrot decided to jump on the man and tried to hold him on the ground until help arrived.
“I was just trying to hold him with everything I had, and it wasn’t working. This guy had strength that was just unbelievable. So I let him go,” LaBrot said.
He said the intruder immediately tried to go back into his yard.
LaBrot said he happened to have a small aluminum baseball bat in his carport.
“My nephew’s kids hit rocks with it. It’s all dented up, and I just grabbed it,” LaBrot said.
He said he used the bat to hit the intruder’s hands as he tried to climb the fence into LaBrot’s back yard.
“The guy never made a sound. He never winced in any pain. Never. This guy was just unstoppable, and my wife and now my neighbor’s wife and daughter are in my home. So now it’s serious.”
LaBrot said he warned the intruder multiple times to stay away from his home, and the intruder tried to attack him.
“He came at me again with all of his might.”
LaBrot said he hit the intruder once with the bat, and “it didn’t phase him.”
He said the intruder came for him again and he hit him once more with the bat, and it stunned him long enough for the arriving police to arrive and take the man into custody.
LaBrot said he felt bad he had to use violence against the man to keep his family safe but was glad he was able to keep his cool and not use his firearm.
He credits his three years as a first responder with the Jefferson R-7 Fire District with helping him not lose his head in the stressful situation.
“I think that helped me read the emotion that I had to read, whether it was self-defense or was this guy actually trying to kill me,” LaBrot said. “It was an immediate read for me to be able to look in his hands when he came around and not just be scared to death.”
Crystal City Police Capt. Mike Pruneau said the perpetrator was a 30-year-old man who had been staying at a home off Crystal Heights Road.
Pruneau said the man, who was under the influence of methamphetamines, was hallucinating and was trying to enter the Miller’s home to get to safety.
“He thought someone was chasing him with a gun.”
He was not found to be carrying any weapons.
Pruneau said the man was sent to Mercy Hospital Jefferson in Crystal City for evaluation after he was apprehended due to the drug use and hallucinations.
Pruneau believes he will most likely be charged with trespassing, assault, assault on a police officer and resisting arrest, adding that burglary charges are unlikely because the man did not get into the house.
The Millers, who both work for Herculaneum High School, said they were thankful their neighbor was there for them in their time of need.
“We just felt so grateful to DJ and his wife for taking us in and providing us with the safety that we needed in that moment,” Jamie Miller said.
“It was terrifying, but we are so grateful for DJ. He really stepped in like a hero and defended our family and defended his family,” Andrew Miller said. “We’ve got a baseball bat on order for DJ that’s engraved. It says, ‘World’s Best Neighbor.’”