A Ruffs Dale man was arrested on assault and robbery charges after police say he entered his 73-year-old grandmother’s home early Sunday and hit her with a cane after she refused to let him take her prescription pills.

John S. Accipiter, 25, was arraigned on charges of harassment, resisting arrest, robbery and simple assault in connection with the 12:30 a.m. incident at the woman’s home in the 700 block of Rolling Hills Road in East Huntingdon, according to state police in Belle Vernon.

Trooper John Simko said in court documents that the woman was watching television in her bedroom when Accipiter broke into her home, entered the room and attempted to grab her plastic pill box.

When the woman refused to let Accipiter take the pills, “she was pulled from her bed, shoved against the wall and swung at repetitively with her own walking cane,” Simko wrote in court documents.

Relatives who live nearby came to check on the woman and broke up the assault after they heard “Accipiter kicking at the front door to get in the home,” Simko said.

Simko reported that the 53-year-old boyfriend of a female relative suffered a laceration and swollen left eye when he was struck while pulling Accipiter away from the woman.

Accipiter fled to a nearby home where he was taken into custody, Simko said.

“Accipiter resisted arrest by refusing to get into the patrol car. He fell to the ground and had to be forcibly placed in the patrol car by troopers,” Simko wrote in court documents.

Simko said troopers noticed holes in the bedroom wall where the woman was hit by the cane.

According to online court records, Accipiter has a preliminary hearing March 22 for an Aug. 13 arrest for driving under the influence and possession of drug paraphernalia filed by Rostraver police.

In 2019, he pleaded guilty to a charge of possession of drug paraphernalia filed by state police after a traffic stop in New Stanton. In 2018, he pleaded guilty to retail theft in Hempfield. He received probation in both cases, according to court dockets.

Accipiter was taken to the county prison Sunday after he failed to post $150,000 bond pending a preliminary hearing Feb. 17. He did not have an attorney listed in court documents.

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