HUNTINGTON BEACH : 5 Men Are Charged in Home Invasion

Police arrested five men, including one who tried to bribe residents into hiding him, on suspicion of robbing occupants of a house at gunpoint.

Police Officer J.B. Hume said the robbery occurred about 11:30 p.m. Monday at a house on the 800 block of Major Circle. He said five intruders entered the house, confronted a couple at gunpoint, then took goods out to their two cars.

Four suspects were arrested as they were driving away, Hume said. A fifth man, Nathaniel Knox, 21, of Los Angeles, reportedly fled on foot and eluded police.

A short while later, Hume said, a resident in the 17000 block of Stanley Walk reported a prowler. The resident found Knox hiding in a bedroom closet, and Knox pointed a gun at him, Hume said.

The resident managed to escape, and officers saw Knox fleeing onto the grounds of the old Rancho View Elementary School site at B Street and Warner Avenue, Hume said. A SWAT team was then called in to search for the suspect in the darkened buildings.

By 5:20 a.m., police believed that the suspect had escaped the school by entering a flood control channel running along the north side of the campus. However, an hour later, a woman living on nearby Lancaster Drive reported an intruder in her back yard.

Officers spotted Knox there and chased him out of the yard to Newland Street, where he tried to persuade residents near Warner Avenue to hide him for $200 but was refused. SWAT team members eventually cornered him in the 17000 block of Hague Street, where he was arrested without a struggle, Hume said.

The other four suspects were identified as Richard B. Martin, 30, of Anaheim; Shane J. Summers, 25, a transient; John A. Knox Jr., 19, of West Covina; and Luis G. Molina, 26, of Garden Grove. The two Knox men told police they are cousins, Hume said.