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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.
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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.
