MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – A family was held up at gunpoint early Friday during a home invasion in northwest Miami-Dade County, authorities said.
The home invasion was reported shortly after 2 a.m. at a home near Northwest 122nd Street and West Randall Park Drive.
Miami-Dade police said two men and a woman who live at the home were getting out of their car when they were approached by three people wearing dark-colored clothing and bandannas covering their faces.
Police said the robbers pointed guns at them, ordered them to the ground and demanded money.
The victims were then forced into their home, where another woman, her 8-year-old son and 4-year-old daughter were at the time.
Police said one of the robbers stayed outside as a lookout, while the other two ordered the family into a bedroom.
Police said one of the men was pistol-whipped by the robbers as they continued demanding money from him.
The victim suffered a minor cut to his head.
He spoke to Local 10 News reporter Terrell Forney later in the morning and said that the robbers threatened to kill him, but said that they wouldn't only because his children were inside the home.
Police said the robbers ransacked the home, while the victims secretly called 911.
The father who spoke to Forney said his brother threw him a cellphone while the robbers were distracted and he called 911. He said he turned down the volume and repeated his address twice and left the line open.
Police arrived to the home as the robbers were running north of the home.
Police said officers heard a gunshot as they established a perimeter to find the robbers.
Miami-Dade police's special response team and K-9 units were called to the scene, but the robbers were not found.
The father told Forney that the thieves left with $700 in cash and some jewelry, including a necklace snatched from his wife's neck.
He said he doesn't know why anyone would target his family, who just moved into the house, but said that it might be because of the type of cars that they drive or someone might have seen them unloading all of their belongings into the home when they moved in.
He said they now plan to move from the home.
No other victims were injured in the home invasion.
Anyone with information about the identities of the robbers is asked to call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS.