A Brewton woman got a scare early Monday morning when she awoke to a noise to find someone had broken in to her house on North Pine Street.

The scene only got more terrifying when the suspect grabbed her and held her down, said Sgt. Steven Ferguson with the Brewton Police Department.

“Apparently he was intoxicated or on some type of drug,” Ferguson said. “He didn’t try to steal anything.”

The homeowner was able to wake up her children by banging on the wall, and her daughter called police, Ferguson said.

Officers arrived and arrested James Autry Evans, 37, of Brewton. As they were putting him into a squad car, Ferguson said, Evans struggled and kicked out the police car window.

Evans was charged with public intoxication, burglary and two counts of criminal mischief, one related to the police car damage.

Ferguson said the suspect lives near the house he broke into, and the victim in the case recognized him when she got closer to him.

“His claim was that someone was after him,” Ferguson said. “He thought he was trying to get away from someone.”

Although there were two incidents of home invasions in the Atmore area before Christmas, Ferguson said such cases have been rare in Brewton.

The Brewton Police Department has recently reopened a home invasion case from 2009, Ferguson said.