Three men forced their way into a Queens home early Saturday, where they terrorized a family before being pursued and arrested by police during a chase through residential backyards, cops said.
Criminal charges against the three men were pending for the raid on the single-family home just a block from Grand Central Parkway on Marathon Parkway and Cullman Ave. in Little Neck, cops said.
The trio forced their way into the home at about 2:30 a.m., panicking the four adults and three children inside, cops said. The victims were a 72-year-old man and a 71-year-old woman, along with another woman, 44, and another man, 43, as well as a boy, 13, and two girls ages 10 and 1, cops said.
The suspects flashed guns and a hammer and robbed the family of an undisclosed amount of cash. They also punched the older woman in the face and struck the younger man in the foot with a hammer.
During the raid, the younger woman, carrying the baby girl, managed to escape the home and call 911.
Responding officers used drones and encircled the home. Using night vision, the drones recorded the three suspects as they climbed out of a kitchen window and started to flee.
“The cops chased them and ran through the yard. They caught one of the guys at the side of my house,” neighbor Richard Leung said.
“Our drones were able to respond and provided invaluable assistance during the apprehension of the suspects,” NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry wrote on X.
“All three suspects were apprehended without incident in a short time frame,” thanks to the NYPD Emergency Services Unit and officers from the 109 and 111 precincts, Daughtry wrote.
Leung, 55, said he saw one of the suspects walking near the home Friday evening.
“I don’t know what he was doing. I looked out my window and I saw him walking around,” the neighbor said. “Maybe he was staking out houses. He didn’t look familiar.”
A man and a woman walking with a limp refused to speak to a reporter at the targeted home Saturday afternoon.
Neighbors said the family moved in around two years ago.
“Very nice family. They always waved and greeted us,” said Chris Manino, 50. “You can just imagine the kids having to go through that."
Manino said the home invasion brought back memories of his mother walking in on two robbers ransacking their nearby home over three decades ago.
“That was scary. I can feel for the family there. It’s a traumatizing situation and I hope they can get through it,” he said.
It was not immediately known why the three suspects targeted the home on the usually quiet, tree-lined Queens block.
“There’s a lot of expensive houses around here, but why that one?” said Leung, who lives behind the family’s home.
“This has never happened in the area. It’s very strange,” said another neighbor who gave his name as Eddy E. “I don’t know what happened. Maybe the robbers knew them, or it was some revenge? It’s shocking.”
_____________
©2024 New York Daily News.
Visit nydailynews.com.
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
