A 47-year-old Cheney man is accused of burglary after his 25-year-old female neighbor said he’d repeatedly threatened to “chop her head off” before bursting into her apartment and trying to pull her shirt off.

The extreme case of a bad neighbor occurred Sunday in a motel on B Street in Cheney, where the alleged victim said a man in a nearby rental unit was harassing her via telephone and had also contacted her in person, according to court documents.

Police arrived to find the woman being consoled by two friends in the room. The woman said she believed the man, identified as Paul A. Columbus, was capable of carrying out the threats. She said he'd burst into her room after she called 911 but she was able to push him outside and lock the door.

The woman said she was never in a relationship with Columbus and that he has never been allowed inside her room. Her two friends told police they witnessed Columbus threatened to cut the woman's head off and kill her dog.

Columbus remains jailed on $7,500 bond after appearing in Spokane County Superior Court on a first-degree burglary charge.

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