A Rancho Cucamonga mother was forced to defend her family from a stranger in a frightening attack caught on home surveillance video.
The mother and her three children were seated next to a small fire pit lit just inside a friend’s open garage, enjoying the cool fall weather on the evening of Oct. 22.
As one of the children approached the open garage door, a man suddenly charged out of the darkness and toward the family. The mother immediately sprang to action, throwing herself in the assailant’s path as her children retreated into the house.
“I thought he was gonna take my girls. I also had my one year old in the background in a high chair,” the mother explained.
She pushed the intruder to the ground and held him there until her husband and a friend arrived on the scene to help. Police were called shortly thereafter.
“If my kids are involved, I’m willing to do anything,” the mother told CBS Los Angeles.
The woman’s husband and friend had been driving around the neighborhood looking for the stranger because he had appeared on the property earlier in the evening, but fled when asked what he was doing there.
Rancho Cucamonga police confirmed to KNX 1070 that the suspect has been identified as 31-year-old Rasmuss Peter Rasmussen.
A police spokesperson said Rasmussen was under the influence of one or more unspecified controlled substances at the time of the incident. Police believe he was heavily intoxicated, unaware of his actions, and was not intending anything “malicious” when he rushed into the garage.
Rasmussen was still in custody as of Friday. He has been charged with a misdemeanor health and safety violation in connection with being under the influence of a narcotic. It is not known whether he will face additional criminal charges for the Oct. 22 incident.
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