MIAMI BEACH, FLA. (WSVN) - An afternoon of gardening spiraled into chaos for a Miami Beach woman after, she said, a man who was being chased by police stormed into her garden, grabbed a pipe and went after her.
Valerie Owen said she was just trying to enjoy a Friday afternoon in her garden along Bay Road, near 16th Street, when the perpetrator ran into it, and all hell broke loose.
“You don’t know when someone’s gonna jump in your backyard and chase you with a pipe,” she said.
But that’s exactly what she said happened while working on her flowers.
“Planting my pots, putting all new flowers in the pots,” she said.
Owen said she heard a noise all of a sudden.
“I heard like a disturbance coming in the alley,” she said.
What she heard was a man, identified by police as Jean Requena, being chased by officers.
In a desperate rage, the suspect ran into Owen’s garden and picked up a pipe from her gardening tools.
“I saw him, and he came towards me with the pipe, and I started yelling at him, ‘Get out of here!'” she said.
Owen said she yelled for her husband, and that’s when the pipe-clutching intruder took off.
Police caught up to Requena close by.
“From what I understand, he was aggressive with the police officers,” said Owen.
Law enforcement sources said Requena had to be shocked with a Taser before being taken to the hospital.
It was an intense resolution to a dangerous day in the garden and beyond.
“It was really scary, and he was just absolutely out of his mind, frantic,” said Owen.
Requena has been placed under arrest. He faces a long list of charges, including aggravated assault on an officer, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and resisting arrest.
As for Owen, she can now laugh at the chaotic chain of events.
“I was in the middle of it all today,” she said.
Requena is expected to be transported to Miami-Dade County Jail Saturday.
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