Chilling police video shows home intruder holding gun to woman’s head after alleged sexual assault
Horrifying police bodycam video captured the moment a nearly naked man held a woman hostage at gunpoint after allegedly breaking into her San Diego home, masturbating inside a bathroom and sexually assaulting her.
Demetrius Trussell, a 40-year-old parolee, allegedly broke into four other homes before bursting into the 53-year-old woman’s residence on Viacha Drive, where she barricaded herself with her father on Saturday, the Times of San Diego reported.
The woman called 911 about the terrifying home invasion at about 2:20 a.m.
She reported that the armed intruder broke into her home as she slept, ran down the stairs and masturbated in a bathroom, according to audio of the call that police released along with the chilling footage.
One of the cops who responded to the address made “verbal contact” with the woman’s father before a loud bang and screams are heard when the man broke into a room where she was hiding.
“Let me see your (expletive) hands! Let me see your hands!” an officer shouts as he starts to walk upstairs, pointing a flashlight at the suspect.
He and his partner then point their guns up the staircase as the man pulls the victim into what appears to be a bathroom — holding a gun to her head for several minutes.
“Gun! Gun!” the officers scream.
“This is a hostage situation. We have a Mexican standoff,” the man is heard saying in an audio clip, a reference to an armed confrontation between multiple parties that no one can win.
“Why is this a hostage situation?” a cop asks.
“’Cause I don’t have no way out, so I gotta take a hostage with me,” the man answers.
“No, no you don’t,” the officer says.
The man then says cops are “going to have to send a SWAT team.”
“And then what?” an officer asks.
“I want you to back out … before I shoot her,” the hostage-taker says. “I’m going to shoot her in the kneecap.”
The woman screams, “No! No! Please, God. Please, God, no!”
Seconds later, the man fires his gun. The woman says it went off accidentally and that she was not hurt.
Meanwhile, an officer is seen climbing a rear balcony and leading the elderly father to safety while another cop heads onto a neighbor’s rooftop, where he had a clear view of the intruder.
After the gun went off inside the house, the officer fired multiple rounds at the suspect, who dropped to the floor and surrendered, police said.
Neither the hostages nor the suspect were injured in the gunfire, officials said.
Trussell was charged with 18 felonies, including hot prowl burglary, kidnapping, false imprisonment with a hostage, negligent discharge of a firearm, possession of a stolen vehicle, indecent exposure, assault with the intent to commit a sex crime, sexual battery and assault with a deadly weapon, police Lt. Jud Campbell told the Times of San Diego.
“The suspect exposed himself and sexually battered the homeowner multiple times,” police said.
On Wednesday, prosecutors alleged that Trussell committed five residential burglaries and tried to break into two other homes before terrorizing the woman and her father.
During the crime spree, he allegedly drove a white minivan that had been reported stolen in a carjacking, according to the newspaper.
Deputy District Attorney Meghan Buckner said Trussell was on parole at the time of the attack, the San Diego Tribune reported.
He was convicted of robbery in North Carolina in 2009 and of a “hot prowl” residential burglary in San Diego in 2018, according to the paper.
A prosecutor said Trussell was being held in an advanced observation unit, which monitors inmates who may pose a danger to themselves or others.
