2 people suffer injuries in home invasion

The man alleged to be a home intruder is in critical condition after being shot.
By TIM YOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
BRACEVILLE -- Roger Willard abruptly met his neighbor in the middle of the night as he was wheeled past Willard in a gurney.
"I'm sorry about waking you up, but I'm your neighbor," Lance D. Martin said in apology to Willard as the badly beaten Martin was taken to an ambulance.
Martin, 26, was released after treatment at St. Joseph Health Center on Tuesday after two men reportedly broke into his residence at 3243 state Route 5 about 3:20 a.m. Tuesday.
One man who police allege is one of his assailants, Michael S. Jones, 27, of Front Street, Warren, was in critical condition Tuesday in St. Elizabeth Health Center with multiple gunshot wounds.
Sheriff Thomas Altiere said that Martin was in his bedroom when two armed men burst in. He struggled and fought with both of them.
Martin told deputies he managed to disarm a black man later identified as Jones and shot him. He fought with and disarmed the second intruder, a white man, and also reportedly shot him. Both intruders fled the house.
Martin ran across the road and awakened Willard and his wife, who went to the bathroom window.
"I've been shot," Martin yelled outside the window. When the couple looked out the window, Martin was gone.
Other details
When police arrived, they found Martin atop the roof of a garage in Willard's back yard. As it turned out, he wasn't shot but rather suffered severe cuts and lost some teeth.
Willard said Martin moved in across the street about two months ago.
"I don't know them. I don't want to know them," Willard said of the neighbor.
Leon Bowling lives in an apartment above the Martin residence.
"It looked like he was beat to hell," Bowling said in describing Martin. "They worked him over good."
Bowling, who moved in about a month ago, said he heard scuffling and went downstairs into Martin's residence through a common door.
Bowling described seeing blood on the floor -- and one of the intruders. The white intruder was holding a large knife in his right hand. Bowling then backed off and went back upstairs.
Next, a man Bowling knows only as "Buddy," who sometimes stays downstairs at Martin's first-floor home, came upstairs to his apartment. He was stabbed in the head. Bowling put a towel around the wounds.
Altiere said Buddy isn't mentioned in the police report. Bowling said Buddy had left before police arrived.
Looking out his door and onto the backyard of the house, Bowling said he saw the white intruder running into a field off to the side of the house.
When he noticed the black man running into a field toward the rear of the house, Bowling explained, he ran after him, knocking him to the ground.
Bowling said he attempted to keep the man, later identified as Jones, at bay but backed away when he reached into his jacket as if he had a gun.
yovich@vindy.com