Norwich police say a 29-year-old city man held a gun to the head of a cancer patient he knew and demanded she give him her prescription pain pills during a home invasion on Talman Street in December.

Jamal Young, whose last known address was 41 Boswell Ave., has been incarcerated since last month on an unrelated probation violation charge. During an appearance Tuesday in New London Superior Court, police served him with an arrest warrant charging him with home invasion and attempted sixth-degree larceny.

The alleged 57-year-old victim, who is not identified in an arrest warrant affidavit, told police she was in her bedroom when she heard a knock at the door of her Talman Street home about 1 a.m. on Dec. 18. Two men were in another room watching television at the time. She said she asked who was at the door, and a man responded, "Eddy." She said she began opening the door even though she didn't know anyone named Eddy.

The woman said the man pushed open the door, pointed a semi-automatic handgun at her head and said, "Give me the percs. Give me the percs." She said she has a prescription for Percocet, an opioid painkiller, due to her cancer diagnosis.

The woman said she slipped to the floor during the struggle and pushed the door closed with her feet, trapping the man's arm in the door. The two men in the apartment were starting toward the door to help her, she said, when the man pulled his arm out and ran away, according to the affidavit.

The woman initially identified a former neighbor from Cliff Street who knew about her diagnosis as the suspect, but later realized it was that man's brother-in-law, Young, according to the affidavit. She said she saw Young often while she lived on Cliff Street and had watched his children while he was incarcerated.

She and the two men who witnessed the attack identified Young as the perpetrator when police showed them a lineup of eight photos of men similar in age and appearance, according to the affidavit. Questioned when he was arrested on Jan. 12 for the probation violation, "Young mentioned the fact that his accuser is the same person that watched his children while he was incarcerated, and that he wouldn't do that to her," according to the affidavit.

Young had served three years in prison for second-degree assault and was serving three years of probation at the time of his arrest, according to the affidavit. He was charged with a probation violation for missing anger management meetings, failing to attend an employment program and testing positive for alcohol and marijuana.

He is being held in lieu of $300,000 at the Bridgeport Correctional Center and is due back in court on March 6.

k.florin@theday.com