A domestic violence suspect in Gilbert was arrested yesterday -- after police had to call the fire department to pry him out of the ceiling where he got stuck while trying to flee police.
About 1:30 a.m. yesterday, Gilbert police responded to a domestic violence call in the 500 block of North Adler Street in Gilbert.
Responding officers heard a woman inside the apartment screaming "Please help" and "Please no." They also heard things being thrown around the apartment.
Once inside, police realized the screaming woman's live-in boyfriend,
33-year-old Stephen J. Nowak, had tried to escape once police arrived
and he tried to do so through the attic.
After trapping himself in the attic, and refusing to come out, police blasted him with pepper spray.
Trying to escape the pepper-spray-filled attic, Nowak kicked a hole
through the ceiling into a bedroom. He tried to slip through the hole
and got stuck -- Clark W. Griswold-style.
Nowak didn't just get stuck, he got stuck -- so much so that police had to call fire crews to remove him from the hole in the ceiling.
Once out of the ceiling, Nowak was taken to a hospital where he was
treated for minor injuries. He was then arrested and charged with three
counts of domestic violence-related crimes.
