AceShowbiz -

"Sparkle" actress Melora Rivera had a scary run-in with a mad intruder. Like a scene in a horror movie, a picture taken by a passerby showed her in only a flannel shirt cowering under the awning and a dark figure looming from the other side of roof.

The intruder identified as Christian Hicks was ultimately arrested and she was rescued. Firefighters raised a ladder to the roof to help her come down. The intruder described as a homeless often wandering in the neighborhood was held on suspicion of burglary.

Rivera said the man broke through her door while she was in bed. "Once I saw him in the house, I knew that we both couldn't be there. I knew that I didn't want to have a confrontation with him of any sort, you know, not knowing what his intention was," she told KCAL9.

Hicks, 29, was reportedly a mentally ill man arrested in the same neighborhood earlier that day for trespassing. He was released by police the first time because the person who complained of his behavior wouldn't identify him in person.

"I think it's very obvious for most of us who live around here, when someone seems to be suffering from a mental illness, and to continue to let these people walk around without offering them assistance, to protect them and us. That, I think, is the heart of the problem," Rivera said.