Man Charged In Meriden Home Invasion

MERIDEN, CT — A Berlin man was charged with home invasion following a domestic incident in Meriden, according to police. Colin McBriarty, 31, was charged with home invasion, breach of peace, interfering with police officers, six counts of violation of a protective order, failure to submit to fingerprints, and second-degree criminal mischief.

Meriden police said that they received a call Wednesday from Berlin police about McBriarty, who was found to have cut off his monitoring bracelet that he was required to wear.

The monitoring bracelet was related to numerous violent domestic incidents involving a woman who lives in Meriden and at the time of the alleged crime, there were six protective court orders in place protecting her from McBriarty, according to police.

Meriden police went to the woman's home for a welfare check. When police arrived at the home, they found a light on in the basement and saw that a screen was missing from one of the windows.

Moments later, officers heard a loud crash inside of the home and they began knocking loudly on the door of the home while announcing their presence. A man, whom officers suspected may be McBriarty, stuck his head out of an upstairs window, and officers attempted to speak with him imploring him to come outside peacefully.

The man did not comply and officers heard several more loud bangs as if furniture was being moved or thrown around within the home.

At this time the woman, who was also inside of the home, called police and reported that she was hiding in a closet in the home and that she suspected that McBriarty had just broken into her home just before police arrived.

The victim said that she feared for her life, then officers outside the home immediately forced entry and rushed up to the second floor.

They found McBriarty had already barricaded himself into the laundry room. Officers attempted to enter the room, but he had slid the dryer in front of the door, preventing officers from entering.

Officers were able to convince McBriarty to exit the room a few minutes later and he was taken into custody without incident.

Later police discovered that McBriarty had actually gained entry by kicking in one of the home’s doors which had a swinging pet door built into it.

McBriarty was held on a $250,000 bond and he appeared in court later that morning.

The victim was not injured in the incident.