Beaten intruder goes for leftover steak

Published 10:11 am Wednesday, August 17, 2011

An intruder entered the home of Guy and Willis Freeman at 1215 Rosewood Ave., Franklin, at 11:10 p.m. Friday. Willis Freeman fought off the suspect, who was sent to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital with injuries to his face and head.| Gwen Albers/The Tidewater News

FRANKLIN—After beating an intruder with a black jack, Willis Freeman said, the injured man walked to his stove for some leftover steak and sat down at a table until police arrived.

“He was drunk,” said Freeman, who was also injured during the scuffle with suspect Brent Dion Lashley, 35, of 104 Langston Court, Franklin, at 11:10 p.m. Friday at Freeman’s Rosewood Avenue home.

Franklin police charged Lashley with breaking and entering with intent to commit assault, malicious wounding and possession of marijuana. After being treated at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital for 17 hours, the suspect was taken to Western Tidewater Jail.

Freeman said he heard someone attempting to come inside the home and helped open the door, assuming it was his nephew, who also lives there.

“The guy just started to walk in and I pushed him back,” Freeman said. “He grabbed me in the chest and grabbed my catheter. He snapped it out.”

Bleeding, Freeman grabbed the black jack from the bedroom of his brother, Guy Freeman Sr., who was in bed.

“I beat him really bad; they told me he got five staples in his head,” Willis Freeman said. “Then my brother called 911.”

“I had cooked food earlier and it was standing on the stove and he (the suspect) started eating,” Willis Freeman continued. “Then he sat down at the table.”

Willis Freeman was treated at Southampton Memorial Hospital and traveled to Sentara Obici in Suffolk on Monday to have the catheter put back in; he needs it for kidney dialysis.

Guy Freeman Sr., who is confined to a wheelchair due to a hereditary disease and was unable to get out of bed, never saw a thing nor does he know the suspect.