When his son confronted the intruder, "it looked like the guy had filled a backpack with tools. Now my son went out in shorts, no shoes, no shirt, anything. So he told (his wife) to bring him shoes and she brought the shoes and a filet knife because he had been wanting to clean out a fish earlier. In the meantime, the guy's got a hammer and so a scuffle ensued."



Mark Hayes' wife said Hayes thought there was more than one intruder in the garage.



Long-time neighbor Patty Young said she got a call around 3:30 a.m. from Mark Hayes, who told her a man had broken into his garage.



Hayes said the alarm went off in his garage and he went to check it out, according to Young, who has served as the local block club captain for about 10 years.



"He said, 'I didn't see him but we got to fighting and I stabbed him,' " Young said.



The intruder then ran to a white car parked near 126th and State streets, about a block and a half from the garage, Young said. Hayes got into his own car and started to chase the intruder but lost him.



Officers were swarming the area shortly after the incident and Hayes learned that the intruder had died, Young said. Blood was spattered on the white fence surrounding the home and near the garage.



Neighbors said there's been little serious crime on the block, where bungalows are trimmed by neatly manicured lawns.



About two years ago, neighbors became concerned about drug dealers hanging out at the corner and turned on sprinklers to shoo them away. "They don't come around here because they know these crazy people are going to put the sprinklers on them," she said.



Still, there has been a rash of garage break-ins over the last two years, she said. On Wednesday evening, Young said she found her garage door had been pried open but nothing taken.



She said she no longer keeps valuables in her garage after she had some carpentry equipment stolen from the garage about a year ago. "They stole a bunch of stuff. That's why I don't leave anything in there," Young said.



As she stood inside her doorway, she pointed to several other neighbors who also got hit by break-ins to their garage. "We have to keep an eye out for each other," she added later. "I try to tell people you got to stop putting stuff (in the garage)."



According to court records, Cornell had pleaded guilty in 2009 to burglary and was given two years probation in the case, but was charged with violating probation in the case.



He also pleaded guilty in a 2000 domestic battery charge and a two-year order of protection was issued in the case.



In 2004, he was charged with misdemeanor assault with a weapon but the case was dropped — as most of the cases were over the years -- because the complaining witness did not show up in court.