Several small pools of dried blood, a broken door and a buckled wall were the only signs Tuesday morning of an overnight police chase that ended inside the living room of a western Lawrence family.

Homeowner Sam Hunsaker awoke about 2 a.m. to a crashing sound as his door was forced open, and pieces of the door jamb were sprayed down an inside staircase. At first he thought his son-in-law had fallen down the stairs, but as he entered the living room, he said, he saw a man’s hand holding on to his splintered door frame.

Someone else had the man from behind and was trying to pull him out of the house, Hunsaker said.

“I thought it was my son-in-law who was wrestling him,” Hunsaker said. Hunsaker’s son-in-law, Cory Monson, is a member of the Air Force and just returned from Guam for the holidays.

Turns out it wasn’t his son-in-law on the other side of the partially opened door of the house in the 3000 block of University Drive, but rather a Lawrence police officer.

“My adrenaline was just going,” Hunsaker said. “It was very surreal.”

Detective M.T. Brown, of the Lawrence Police Department, said the man who tried to force his way into the home was 30-year-old Nathan A. Darling. Brown said Darling had been pulled over near Hunsaker’s house after police observed his vehicle weaving.

“During (field sobriety tests), the individual fled and forced his way into the home,” Brown said.

The officer took the suspect into custody and transported him to Lawrence Memorial Hospital, where injuries he suffered were evaluated.

As Hunsaker awaited repairs to his door Tuesday morning, he speculated that Darling chose to try to enter his house because “it was the only one with Christmas lights still on.” Hunsaker was at home with his wife, daughter, son-in-law and two grandchildren when the incident occurred.

After taking the suspect into custody, officers returned to look for something the man may have left behind, Hunsaker said.

Brown said police recovered bags containing what they suspected were hallucinogenic mushrooms. Police think Darling removed them from his pocket as he struggled at the door. Hunsaker said the mushrooms landed on and around a duffel bag full of baby clothes just inside the home’s door.

Darling was booked into jail Tuesday after being released from the hospital. He is expected to face charges including aggravated battery, battery on a law enforcement officer, obstruction, possession with intent to sell and criminal damage to property when he makes his first appearance in court this afternoon.