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Brecksville man, 19, acting strangely, dies after breaking into condo
Brie Zeltner, Cleveland Plain Dealer

Broadview Heights -- A 19-year-old Brecksville man died early Thursday morning after breaking into an elderly couple's condominium, removing his clothes and asking to take a shower, police said.

This is how the incident unfolded, according to Broadview Heights police:

Neighbors heard William Martin yelling "help me" about 2 a.m. outside the patio door of an apartment in the 1000 block of Tollis Parkway. He was wearing only a pair of pants. He then scaled a wooden fence separating the apartments from condominiums on Scenicview Drive.

Martin ran through a bedroom window and into a condominium where a couple in their 80's were sleeping in an adjacent bedroom. Martin took off his pants and underwear, said he needed to take a shower, and assaulted both of them. He tried to run out through another bedroom window, which he cracked, and then left the way he came in.

A witness said Martin scaled the same fence but it broke and he fell onto the pavement. He then took a piece of the broken wood and used it to stab and hit himself.

Police arrived and Martin assaulted one of them, biting his finger. Other officers subdued Martin, and then he went limp and stopped breathing.

Martin was transported to Parma Community General Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 2:25 a.m., Cuyahoga County Coroner Frank Miller said. His death is under investigation, and Miller said there was no visually obvious cause of death in the autopsy, which was done Thursday.