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On Wednesday May 25 at 6:09 p.m., multiple Jackson police officers responded to a residence on Olena Drive on the report that multiple suspects had forced entry into a victim’s home and assaulted his family.
Officers encountered a female resident pointing out five males standing inside the house and shouting to the officers that they had broken into the house and assaulted the family. The five male suspects were detained and taken into custody as the officers continued the investigation, police said.
The investigation revealed that the suspects had forced entry to the front door of the house, causing damage to it in the process. They reportedly held down a male and female resident and took their phones from them to prevent them from calling the police. They then started changing the deadbolt and locks on the front door, police said. The male resident was able to retrieve his phone from the suspects and then call for assistance.
The officers were assisted in the investigation from detectives from the agency’s Special Enforcement Unit and it was discovered that the residence was owned by a male who had leased it to a second male who then subsequently sub-leased to the residents who were currently living there.
The male who owns the property reportedly hired a security company which is based in Brooklyn to evict the people who were living there without going through the eviction process. The five employees then responded to the location and forcibly made entry to the residence and detained the occupants while they began changing the locks on the doors, police said.
The suspects were all placed under arrest and transported to police headquarters where they were processed and complaints were prepared. They were identified as:
- Christopher Landau, 26, of Brooklyn;
- Robert Drozd, 38, of Brooklyn;
- Marco Balanzar-Hernandez, 45, of Lakewood;
- Joseph Castano, 22, of Brooklyn; and
- Cesar Saavedra-Luna, 24, of Brooklyn
All five suspects were charged with robbery, burglary, criminal restraint, theft, criminal mischief, criminal trespassing and simple assault, police said. All were being held in the Ocean County Jail.
The arrestee’s vehicles were seized pending the investigation which is still ongoing.
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