Cape man charged with attempted murder in home invasion
A Cape Coral man was charged with attempted murder, armed burglary and felony battery by strangulation after police say he broke into a home and attempted to smother a woman with a pillow before beating a second woman who heard the early-morning attack.
Cape Coral police arrested Leroy Christopher Furgeson, 25, of 1733 Emerald Cove, and charged him in the assault on two, 21-year-old female occupants at a residence in the southwest Cape Sunday morning.
The two women called police at 5:44 a.m. and said they had been attacked in their home.
One of the women told investigators that after hitting the snooze button on her alarm at 5:30 a.m., she heard a noise and saw a large, black male standing in her bedroom doorway. She said the man approached her bedside and covered her face with a pillow in an attempt to suffocate her. She began struggling and realized that he also had a knife. The woman wrested the knife from the man and he dragged her to the floor and beat her in the head and face as she screamed for help, officials said in a prepared statement.
Hearing the screams, the second woman came to the doorway and found her roommate lying on the floor with the man, later identified as Furgeson, holding a pillow over her face.
The man then attacked the second woman, punching her in the face. The two of them began fighting in the dining room. The first woman attempted to stop the assailant by jumping on his back and hitting him repeatedly but her attempts had no results. She then ran back into her room, grabbed her cell phone and the knife, and fled to the neighbor’s home to call police.
As she ran from the home, she saw the man jump into a silver Chevy pickup and drive away. The second woman also had attempted to flee from the home, but she fell and was stepped on by her assailant as he ran to his pickup to leave.
Police located the suspect’s damaged vehicle, still running, in a field at Southwest 25th Place and Southwest 30th Place. After a brief search, Furgeson was located at 2100 S.W. 32nd Street. He was unconscious initially but regained consciousness and identified himself as “Chris Furgeson,” officials said.
Both women were taken to Cape Coral Hospital with various injuries. One of the women identified Furgeson as her attacker. The other woman said that she had met Furgeson about a week ago through a mutual friend, and that he had been to their residence the previous Wednesday night.
Following an investigation by Cape Detective Patricia Enterline, Furgeson was arrested and taken to the Lee County Jail.
Source: Cape Coral Police Department