A 16-year-old young man is accused of attacking a teenage girl he was obsessed with at a home in Watertown and he has been charged with attempted murder, according to Watertown police.
Police were called to a home on Morris Town Line Highway around 4 p.m. Wednesday to investigate a report of a home invasion and a person with a hatchet injured a person in the home.
On Thursday afternoon, police release more information about what happened.
Get top local stories in Connecticut delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC Connecticut's News Headlines newsletter.
They said the victim saw the other teen approaching the home and called her father, who was at work, so her father called family members who live nearby and they ran over and distracted the 16-year-old assailant from the assault.
One family member called 911 while another chased the suspect who had jumped out of a second-story window and run into the woods Morris Town Line Highway and Bassett Road, police said.
Police said the suspect was wearing a camouflaged sweatshirt.
Officers responded and searched the woods as Connecticut State Police Patrol and K9 Divisions responded to help with the search.
While searching for the suspect, officers learned that the victim knew him and they identified him as a 16-year-old young man from Watertown.
Police said the two were not close friends, and the suspect targeted the victim specifically and this was not a random home invasion.
According to police, a school resource officer was paramount to apprehending the suspect.
"Our school resource officer assigned to the Watertown High School was familiar with the offender and was able to make telephone contact. Due to the offender trusting the school resource officer, the suspect cooperated and made his location known," Watertown Police Chief Joshua Bernegger said.
They said they called the suspect, who made his location known, and he was taken into custody. Investigators recovered a hatchet, large kitchen knife, a machete, electrical tape and binoculars.
Police said it's not clear what the suspect's intentions were, but the tools and equipment he had were to cause violent harm.
The victim sustained serious head, leg, and hand injuries and was transported to a hospital to be treated, police said. She has since been released.
Stories from LX News
LX, or Local X stands, for the exponential possibilities of storytelling in our communities.
The suspect was charged with criminal attempt at murder, home invasion, assault in the first degree, reckless endangerment in the first degree, stalking in the first degree, risk of injury to a minor and burglary in the first degree, detained and transferred to juvenile detention.
Police said mental health is problematic for a lot of people right now and this is a sad example.
The suspect will be arraigned in Torrington Superior Court, Juvenile Matters today.
The victim’s injuries are serious but not life-threatening, police said.
