The suspect in a Paradise Valley home invasion and robbery was arrested Tuesday afternoon, with help from the victim’s pool service employee.

Paradise Valley Police responded to a home near Tatum and Roadrunner Road about 2 p.m. Tuesday. Officers arrived to learn an armed suspect had entered the residence, confronted Rodney Sands and his friend, and held them captive.

“I said what’s this? And he said you know what this is, a robbery, let’s go to the bedroom. That’s what he said,” recalls Sands. “At some point I just walked over here and said you’re not going to tie me up. When I did he walked to about here and shot that lamp.”

Sands thought for sure he would be shot next. But then, a glimmer of hope. He looked out the window and saw an incredible sight.

“Here comes my two pool guys around the corner of the building!” He yelled out to them to call 911. “He shot two times at the two guys running down there.”

The suspect fled the scene in the victim’s vehicle. Meanwhile, the pool service person followed the suspect and called 911 to provide his location to police dispatch.

Phoenix Police stopped the suspect in the area of 28th St and Karen. Officers say Sands positively identified the driver as the suspect who robbed them.

Officers found a loaded gun inside the vehicle. That gun had been reported stolen from a gun shop in Queen Creek. The suspect got away with $3,500 in cash, which was retrieved and will be returned to the victim.

Police identified the suspect as Harley David Will, 26. He was booked into the 4th Ave Jail on charges of robbery, aggravated assault, kidnapping, theft, vehicle theft, and burglary.

Sands is grateful to his pool employees. He says they absolutely saved his life.

 

“I believe in my heart that this guy was going to kill us. I believed that this guy was going to take whatever he wanted to take and I think he was going to kill us.”

 

Sands plans to beef up his security system as soon as possible.