Police looking for mask-wearing trio who terrorized family on camera
Police in Alexandria, Virginia are searching for three masked individuals who tried to break into a home containing a terrified family. RadarOnline.com can report.
And the whole ordeal was everything captured on a doorbell camera.
Officers told RadarOnlein.com three individuals wearing “Halloween-style” masks knocked on the front door of a home in the city about eight miles outside of Washington, D.C.
A woman named Shayla was in the house visiting her mother and initially laughed when she saw the masked people outside. One was dressed as horror villain Michael Myers from the Halloween film franchise, another as a clown and a third as an angry nun.
“At first I thought it was just a Halloween prank, a prank,” Shayla said WUSA9. “So I said, ‘Happy Halloween.'”
But her smile turned to fear when she realized the intruders were serious.
“They kept knocking on the door,” Shayla continued. “The blows would get harder and harder.”
At one point during their scary encounter, you hear a voice bark, “You come out or we’re coming in,” while another voice commands, “Open the door!”
When the residents refused to enter, the suspects broke through a rear gate and tore open the porch screen. However, after a standoff of about ten minutes, the intruders fled in a car. and nothing was taken.
Police are now sifting through the doorbell video and looking for clues. Rebekka Heite with Alexandria Police told the story RadarOnline.com If this was a joke, no one is laughing.
“We haven’t ruled out a prank yet,” Heite said. “However, due to the extent of the damage they caused, this is not being charged as a prank.”
Heite said that at no point during the encounter did the suspects suggest this was all just a joke.
“I don’t know about you, but when my friends play a prank on me, they normally take off the mask and say ‘haha, we got you.’ These people ran away in fear and at this point have not come forward to admit that they were only playing a prank.”
Shayla agreed.
“It’s not even a joke gone wrong. They were trying to get into the house,” she said. “My heart skipped a beat when they said they were going to grab a chair and break down the door.”
Alexandria Police Chief Tarrik McGuire told reporters that this is a very serious matter, adding that the masked individuals “began making threatening and alarming comments to the family…specifically saying, ‘If you don’t come out, we’re coming in,’” and also threatened to cause them bodily harm, stating that they would eventually kill them.
He emphasized, “They were trying to enter a home, and under Virginia state law that is burglary.”
McGuire said if the homeowner had had guns nearby, the outcome could have been very different. The police chief emphasized that residents have the legal right to defend themselves in their homes.
“It’s a warning to people: don’t go to people’s doors, don’t make threats, don’t go further and don’t play with their lives because this could ultimately turn into a dangerous event.”
