In a daring act of defense, a mother from Oregon used a stick to fend off an intruder who barged into her home during the night.
Amanda Materi Brown, aged 42, was watching a movie after tucking her children into bed on a Thursday evening when an unwelcome guest entered her $1 million residence in Portland via a sliding glass door.
“He was yelling incoherently, but the threats ‘I’ll kill you, I’ll kill everyone’ were clear,” Materi Brown recounted to KPTV.
Determined to protect her family, she decided to “meet crazy with crazy.” Grabbing a stick she kept by her bed, she confronted and chased the intruder out.
“I just charged at him and began swinging the stick. He retreated out of the house, which was exactly what I hoped for,” explained Materi Brown.
Following the incident, she contacted 911 to report that a stranger had invaded her home while she and her children were present, as confirmed by the Portland Police Bureau (PPB).
‘She reported that the man threatened to kill them all. She armed herself with a stick and chased the man, who grabbed a metal garbage can lid and fled from the home,’ police said.
Officers tracked the suspect, identified as 35-year-old Timothy Reed, to a nearby footbridge where he was confronted by the police.
Amanda Materi Brown, 42, was watching a movie after putting her kids to bed on Thursday when a stranger entered her home
The man, identified by police as 35-year-old Timothy Reed, hit an officer with a rock as he was arrested and charged with attempted burglary
Brown said he entered her $1 million Portland home through the sliding glass door and her reaction was to ‘meet crazy with crazy’
Body camera footage appeared to show Reed holding the garbage can lid and a rock police say was ‘roughly the size of a softball.’
He was being hostile with officers as they tried to stop him, saying: ‘I’m not afraid of you pig, I’ll kill you.’
According to PPB, Reed struck the officer in the head with the rock as they arrested him.
The officer was transported to the hospital via police vehicle, treated and released. He has been cleared to return to duty, police said.
Reed was booked into the Multnomah County Detention Center on charges of burglary in the first degree, escape in the first degree, assault in the second degree, assaulting a police officer, and criminal mischief in the third degree.
His next court hearing is scheduled for June 9 and his bail has not been set.
Portland has one of the highest rates of property crime in the country with about 7,086 incidents per 100,000 people, according to 2025 data released by the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office.
‘It’s a very difficult time. But it’s a time that I believe we need to focus on core services such as public safety to make sure that we can continue to see these trends, to make sure that we can get our community in as healthy and as safe a place as possible,’ District Attorney Nathan Vasquez told KGW when the report came out in April.
She grabbed a stick that she kept by her bed and chased the intruder out, then called 911
Body camera footage showed Reed holding a garbage can lid and a rock police say was ‘roughly the size of a softball’
Materi Brown said she and her family are relieved that Reed is in custody, but are still shaken up.
‘We’re okay. You know, bad things happen in life and we’re not going to let it make us afraid,’ she said.
According to the local news station, Reed was arrested just days before the home invasion for allegedly exposing himself to children at a park on May 11.
He also allegedly threatened to kill the responding officer during that altercation as well.
‘Deputy Farmer reports that he asked Reed why he’d been naked in front of children in the park, and Reed made rambling statements about, ‘being told to do it by God’ and other nonsensical remarks,’ court filings obtained by the outlet stated.
‘Deputy Farmer asked Reed if he knew that there had been children in close proximity to him while he was naked and he admitted that he knew, but didn’t see a problem with it.’
