A homeowner took out a knife-wielding parolee after the man returned to the house four times in one night.
It all started when a Broadway resident contacted officers at 2:58 am to report someone had attempted to break into the home. He didn’t see anyone, but someone messed with the side window. An officer responded within a minute but didn’t see anything suspicious.
At 3:30 am, the man called back to report Arthur Swanigan, who is currently out on parole, was trying to get in the front door. Police could not locate the man but said they would check the area.
An hour later, a woman called back to report Swanigan was there once again, knocking on the window. By the time police arrived, the man had left.
Police checked a vacant home where the man was known to stay and found the door was open. They could not locate him. Swanigan has 34 previous arrests. The most recent was in December for a parole violation. Police have arrested him four times for parole violations in the past five months.
Just before 8 am, A caller reported Swanigan came at a woman with a knife, and the homeowner hit him in the head with a baseball bat.
Swanigan suffered severe head trauma, and an officer stood by at SOMC in hopes of serving him with a warrant. However, his condition required transport to another hospital, so police released him from custody and took information for a report.