Deputies: Man believed to be high on drugs burglarizes elderly couple’s home, assaults man

HOLLY HILL, Fla. - A Florida man is under arrest after terrorizing a Holly Hill neighborhood Monday night. Deputies say Shawn Loncala, 35, was believed to be under the influence of drugs when he burglarized a home, assaulting an elderly man inside.

He told deputies, in the end, it was his intention to have a shootout with deputies so they could kill him. 

Loncala was on the run for over an hour, starting around 9 p.m. near Old Kings Road when the emergency lines at the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office began lighting up.

"I just heard someone on my roof," said one caller. 

"He’s running through my backyard," said another. 

About 30 minutes after the first call, deputies received a call from an elderly couple saying Loncala had broken into their home. 

"Someone just came inside my house," said the 68-year-old homeowner. "He pushed my husband down. My husband just had a stroke."

Her husband confronted Loncala in the dining room, telling him to leave when Loncala pushed the 75-year-old to the ground. 

"Shoving him into the ground could’ve been a homicide. You just don’t know," said Sheriff Mike Chitwood. "As we know when an elderly person breaks a hip, it’s a death sentence."

Deputies deployed K-9’s, drones, and a chopper as they tried to follow in Loncala’s footsteps. The whole time, Loncala said he was armed with two handguns. Although, deputies never found the guns. 

"His goal was to get into a shootout with deputies and have them kill him, but since we didn’t do that he is going to create a disturbance in the jail and, hopefully, the correctional officers would kill him," Sheriff Chitwood said.

Deputies say they also found a 13.5-gram bag of crystal meth that Loncala hid in one of the backyards.

Sheriff Chitwood describes Loncala as a career criminal with a warrant out for domestic battery. No one had gone to serve the warrant yet when Loncala decided to run and make himself known, officials said.

"It would’ve been way easier if he just walked into the precinct and surrendered and avoid all this, but I guess drugs wouldn’t let him do that," Chitwood said. 

Loncala was charged with burglary of an occupied dwelling with battery, battery on an elderly person 65 years of age or older, and possession of methamphetamines. 

He was also in violation of his felony probation. 

He is being held in the Volusia County Jail without bond. 

The elderly man that was knocked down is doing alright, according to authorities.

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