CSU Students Fight Off Men Armed With Baseball Bats

FORT COLLINS, Colo. (CBS4) – A Colorado State University student was hurt on Monday night when police say he and others inside his home fought off three men armed with baseball bats who broke in.

The incident happened on the 800 block of West Laurel Street just before 9 p.m.

Evan Hayden, a sophomore student at CSU says he and friends were inside his home celebrating a friend's 21st birthday when three men wearing bandanas, hoods, and sunglasses and carrying baseball bats entered through an unlocked back door.

Hayden says the men demanded their cellphones and cash.

Another student, freshman Kennedy Brooks, who was inside the home at the time of the incident, says the men seemed to be looking for drugs and he heard them mention cocaine.

"They were looking for something that they weren't finding," Brooks said.

Before the men left the home, and despite being unable to see from the pepper spray, Hayden says he decided to fight back and tackled his attackers.

Hayden suffered bruises to his knee and back, cuts to his face and neck, and says his hands are covered in bite marks.

Eventually, Hayden was able to restrain one of the suspects and hold him until police arrived.

"No one's going to steal from me and get away from it," Hayden said. "They didn't seem that serious which is why I fought back in the first place."

Hayden was treated at the hospital for his injuries.

The suspect who was restrained by the Hayden and his friends, Dillon Cosgrove, 21, also sustained minor injuries and police arrested him after he was released from the hospital.

"Everybody was just excited that we did catch one of the guys ourselves and then police got the second guy," said Kiersten Dirkes, a junior at Colorado State University and a Hayden's neighbor.

Dirkes says she ran outside when she heard people calling for help, kicked a baseball bat away from Cosgrove and called 911.

Two other suspects ran away and Fort Collins police say they caught one of them, 18-year-old Spencer Crocker, soon afterwards.

That third suspect remains at large. He was described as being just over 6 feet tall and was wearing a mask and a red hoodie.

Both Cosgrove and Crocker are being held at the Larimer County Jail and tentatively face aggravated robbery, burglary and theft charges.

In court Tuesday, a judge set bond for Crocker at $35,000, noting the man has prior felony and misdemeanor convictions.

Cosgrove faces $30,000 bond and both men are scheduled to be back in court on April 15.