Couple fights off Arizona prison escapees just before they were captured
PINAL COUNTY, Ariz. - When two Arizona prisoners escaped on Jan. 23, no one knew where they had gone or who they came in contact with during the 110 hours they were on the run.
However, just before they were caught and the very reason law enforcement was tipped off, was the moment they reportedly broke into a couple's Coolidge home and attacked a woman on Jan. 28.
"I panicked and started kicking him and told him to leave and then I looked out the window and saw there was another person," Rosalina Lopez said.
It was the sound of her dog barking that got her out of bed Thursday morning.
She says she was sleeping when she heard someone trying to get into her home through a doggy door. For a moment, she thought it was her husband trying to get inside but then she says she saw someone’s hand it was not her husband's.
It was one of the convicts that escaped from Florence State Prison.
"They came in and I scuffled with them and I kept saying 'Please get out of my house and don’t hurt me,'" Lopez said.
Escapees David Harmon and John Charpiot aggressively demanded the car keys, she said. At first glance, she didn’t realize who they were until she noticed their prison uniforms.
She was able to get away from the two convicts as she ran outside trying to get to her husband to come to help her and that’s when she tripped. She says the men dragged her back inside of her house.
Her husband fired off warning shots and the men took off running. Soon after, they were arrested in a cotton field.
Authorities released body camera video related to the two escapees' arrest. In the video, the officer and deputy marshals were closing in on the fugitives, who were not listening to commands. Eventually, authorities used stun devices on the two.