Prineville man, 73, recounts tackling intruder

A 73-year-old Prineville-area man told NewsChannel 21 Monday evening how he confronted an alleged drunken intruder at his home late Saturday night, chased him to a back bedroom and tackled him, holding him down while his wife called police..

Deputies and a Prineville police officer were dispatched around 11:30 p.m. to a burglary in progress at a home in the 500 block of NW Martingale Road, said Sgt. James Savage.

Beverly, 82, reported a man had entered their home, and her husband Robert, 73, had confronted him and was holding him down.

“We were watching the 11 o’clock news on TV and it had just finished about 11:30,” Robert said Monday evening, asking that their last name not be used. “All of a sudden, the patio door got slammed open.”

The intruder ran through the dining room, into the kitchen, then into the couple’s bedroom.

“That’s when I tackled him and threw him on the bed on his back, and I had a death hold on his throat and head — and he was threatening to kill us,” Robert said.

His wife called police as he fought with the suspect.

“I just kept looking out the window, hoping they would get here right away, right away,” Beverly said.

Officers arrived within about two minutes and found the situation was just as described.

The intruder, identified as Christopher Matthew John Labauve, 24, of Prineville, was taken into custody, Savage said, and officers found an 18-inch-long knife with a modified handle concealed in his waistband.

Savage said Labauve was highly intoxicated and entered the couple’s home through a back door, entering the living room where they were sitting.

Labauve did not display the knife during the scuffle, the sergeant said, but allegedly “made threatening statements toward the (couple).”

Labauve was taken to the Crook County Jail and booked on first-degree burglary, criminal trespass and criminal mischief charges, as well as two counts of menacing. However, he was released under the matrix system due to lack of jail space, Savage said.

“I’d like to see him get help,” Robert said. “I don’t want to have to shoot him — but I wouldn’t hesitate if he came at me.”

Monday night, a woman identifying herself as Labauve’s sister, Alena Labauve, posted a comment to NewsChannel 21’s article on the incident, saying that her brother “is getting help for his alcoholism and drug addiction.”

“He had just made that knife before he blacked out drunk,” she wrote. “He has no recollection of the night. He apologizes, but he isn’t allowed to contact the people, for obvious reasons.”

“I don’t want people thinking he’s a bad person,” she said, telling the other commenters: “You’ve all made mistakes.”