A suspected home invader in North Carolina was arrested Sunday after an 11-year-old boy fought him off with a machete, authorities said.
The Orange County Sheriff’s Office said Jataveon Hall, 19, was taken into custody at the home of his mother and stepfather in the city of Burlington, east of Greensboro, and charged with breaking and entering, kidnapping, assault and other crimes.
NBC affiliate WRAL reported Friday that the boy had been home alone when a woman knocked on the door and a man — later identified as Hall — allegedly broke in through a window, retrieved a pellet gun and forced the boy into a bedroom closet.
While Hall allegedly stole a cellphone in the living room, the boy freed himself from the closet, grabbed a machete and struck Hall in the head, the station reported.
A fight followed, according to the station, though Hall soon fled after he realized he was bleeding.
Hall checked into UNC-Hillsborough Hospital on Friday afternoon with a head laceration, the sheriff’s office said in a statement.
Against medical advice, Hall left roughly seven hours later after telling a nurse “he needed to leave because the police were going to be looking for him,” the statement said.
After receiving a tip Sunday, police learned that Hall was at his mother’s home in Burlington, officials said.
It wasn’t immediately clear if Hall, who was being held on $100,000 bond, had a lawyer.