According to police, Kevin Ponce was charged and arrested in Friendswood after threatening to kill his boss in the neighborhood

FRIENDSWOOD, Texas (KTRK) — Two Friendswood neighborhoods were on alert Friday when a day laborer armed with a hammer threatened to kill his boss before cutting through yards with a leaf blower.

April Hunley said she was at her home on North Mission Circle around 3 p.m. when her longtime landscaper began frantically knocking on the door.

“He was scared and said, ‘April, you help me,'” she said.

Hunley said the day laborer her landscaper hired to cut her lawn was waving a hammer and threatening her landscaper.

“He said, ‘I want my money now and I’m going to kill you, I’m going to kill you,'” Hunley said.

The threats stemmed from an apparent payment dispute.

“He wanted full pay for a full day at that point and didn’t want to practice the rest of the day,” Hunley said.

Hunley said her landscaper took cover behind her while she tried to talk down the hammer-wielding man, who police later identified as Kevin Ponce.

“I said, ‘Put the hammer down and I’ll call the police,'” Hunley said.

Hunley said the worker dropped the hammer and instead grabbed a leaf blower from his boss’s truck. Neighbors saw him running through La Salle with the fan slung over his back.

As he turned the corner into another part of North Mission Circle, neighbors said he eventually abandoned the leaf blower and jumped a backyard fence, damaging it in the process.

After crossing a drainage ditch, police said they found Ponce in the San Joaquin Estates neighborhood about 80 minutes after the first hammer attack.

“They found him hiding in a drainage ditch that runs under a driveway,” Hunley said.

Ponce was charged with aggravated assault and also faces an additional charge of refusing to identify himself to police.

Friendswood police said he had warrants in Harris and Dallas counties and that ICE arrested him.

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