April Hunley said she was at her home on North Mission Circle at around 3 p.m. when her longtime landscaper began frantically knocking at the door.
"He was afraid, and he said, 'April, you help me,'" she said.
Hunley said the day laborer her landscaper had hired to cut her lawn was waving around a hammer and threatening her landscaper.
"He said, 'I want my money now, and I'm gonna kill you, I'm gonna kill you,'" Hunley said.
The threats arose out of an apparent dispute over payment.
"He wanted full payment for a full day right then, and he didn't want to work out the rest of the day," Hunley said.
Hunley said her landscaper took cover behind her while she tried talking down the hammer-wielding man, who police later identified as Kevin Ponce.
"I said, 'Put down the hammer, and I'm calling the police,'" Hunley said.
Hunley said the laborer dropped the hammer and instead grabbed a leaf blower from his boss' truck. Neighbors saw him running down La Salle with the blower slung over his back.
When he rounded the corner onto another part of North Mission Circle, neighbors say he eventually abandoned the leaf blower and jumped a backyard fence, damaging it in the process.
After crossing a drainage ditch, police say they found Ponce in the San Joaquin Estates neighborhood about 80 minutes after they were first called the hammer attack.
"They found him hiding in a drainage ditch that goes underneath a driveway," Hunley said.
Ponce was charged with aggravated assault and also faces a separate charge for refusing to identify himself to police.
The Friendswood Police Department said he has warrants in Harris and Dallas counties and that ICE has put a hold on him.
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