Tanya Lavallee and her family are shaken up.
Lavallee came home from an office Christmas party overnight Friday to find out a stranger broke into her home while a babysitter watched her children and nieces.
“‘Are my kids safe?’ I just wanted to know, ‘Are my kids safe?’” she recalled.
Police were called to the break and enter on the 100 block of Avenue S South shortly after midnight. Five teenagers and two children were inside the home when a man banged on the doors.
“He banged on that door and we all ran,” said Lavallee’s daughter, referring to a side door, “then he came around and banged on the front door.”
An officer who arrived first at the scene encountered the suspect at the home’s front door, police said in a media release. The pair fought as the man attempted to avoid arrest.
Lavallee’s daughters said the officer pinned the man on the ground but that the suspect managed to escape and break into the house.
He kicked-in the door, according to police. The officer, after struggling with the man, eventually fired his Taser and took the suspect into custody.
The children said they were terrified. They ran from the intruder and took cover.
“We all just picked up the baby and ran to the bedroom,” said Lavallee’s daughter.
No one was injured.
The suspect was taken to hospital as per Saskatoon police policy before he was transported to detention.
He is charged with breaking and entering, assaulting a police officer, breaching his undertaking and three counts of breaching probation.
Lavallee and the kids are haunted by the incident.
“I felt weak. I couldn’t believe this happened — like that this could actually happen,” said Lavallee.
Lavallee’s daughter said she heard the man fighting with a woman before he approached the family’s home and that she believes the man thought the woman had entered the house.
