The incident marked the third time that the suspect violated a restraining order, police said.
Richard E. CallahanLUDLOW – Police believe that a 37-year-old Agawam man who made a spate of threatening phone calls to his estranged wife yesterday, dialed some of them, unbeknownst to her, from an upstairs closet in her Duke Street home.
The suspect, who got into the home by climbing up a lower section and removing an air conditioner from a second floor window, jumped out at the woman and began to strangle her shortly before 10 p.m. when she went upstairs to get her children ready for bed, Sgt. Louis Tulik said.
Police were alerted to the ongoing incident when they received an open-ended 911 call that captured the sounds of an altercation between a man and a woman.
The suspect’s step-son, meanwhile, used his X-Box to text a message to his friend asking him to call police, Tulik said.
Police believe the suspect, Richard E. Callahan, of 63 South Westfield St. in Feeding Hills, had snuck into the home about 50 minutes before, Tulik said.
Tulik said Callahan was angry because the woman amended a restraining order earlier in the day which denied him contact with this 3-year-old son.
The spate of threatening calls began around 4 p.m. and the woman had taken extra steps to secure her home, Tulik said.
Callahan has been charged with violating that restraining order twice this month, Tulik said. On July 6 she encountered him in her driveway and he was charged with assault and battery after he twisted her arm.
Callahan was charged with violating the restraining order again last Friday when she saw him in the backyard peering in through a window, Tulik said.
At some point during Callahan’s struggle with his wife upstairs, she yelled to her 15-year-old to call police.
“At that point, he let her go and ran into (the 15-year-old’s) bedroom and took the cell phone,” Tulik said.
Callahan then ran into another bedroom and grabbed his 3-year-old son.
“The argument continued while he held the child in his arms,” Tulik said.
At that point, Tulik said, the 15-year-old used his X-Box to text his friend. Police, however, alerted by the initial 911 call, were already on the way.
The woman then ran down to the front door, opened it and screamed outside for somebody to call the police, Tulik said.
Callahan then grabbed her while holding his young son and pulled her back inside, Tulik said.
Callahan told the woman he would cut her throat in front of the children if the police were called, Tulik said.
The suspect opened a kitchen drawer where there was a large knife but he never took possession of it, Tulik said.
The woman then forcibly removed the 3-year-old from Callahan’s arms and he left the home.
Officers found Callahan attempting to climb a backyard fence and he was arrested after a brief struggle.
Tulik said Callahan was charged with:attempted murder, breaking and entering in the nighttime with intent to commit a felony, violation of a restraining order, stalking, resisting arrest, two counts of intimidating a witness and unarmed robbery.
He is slated to be arraigned Tuesday in Palmer District Court.
The woman suffered minor injuries but did not require hospitalization, Tulik said.