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Brothers help stop Bronx home invasion

Friday, June 01, 2007

(Bronx - WABC, June 1, 2007) (WABC) -- Two brothers saved the day when robbers burst into their family home in the Bronx.

Now, those two brothers are telling their dramatic stories about keeping their cool and about what they had to do to get out of their home in the Bronx and call police.

Eyewitness News reporter Tim Fleischer is in the Edenwald section with the story.

This family had the scare of their life. But they are alive and safe now due to the quick thinking of not one, but two heros in their family. One of them asked that we not show his face.

"They kicked down the door and I heard people saying get the F down and that's when I heard everything, opened the window and just jumped out," Edwin said.

And 12-year-old Edwin ran with all his might to save his family after three thugs with guns burst into their home just as Edwin was getting into the shower.

"I didn't have no clothes on or nothing ..." he said.

His mother Maria and five others were staring down the barrel of a gun.

"All I'm thinking about was I'm going to die. We didn't know what they want, no idea what was going on ... that was the only thing running through my mind" she said.

But then her other son, Jose Rodriguez, opened the door on one of the gunman.

"I could see the gun clearly cause they were pointing it at me, " he said.

Jose got away, climbing out a rear window, but falling and injuring his leg and hand.

But Edwin ran across a roof and climbed down a tree had a cell phone and called police.

"I ran into an abandoned house next door and I called the cops ... and they got here," Edwin said.

Police surrounded the house on Edson Street and confronted the gunman. And after a shootout, two of them were injured: 21-year-old Kenji Felipe Luna of the Bronx was struck once, and 20-year-old Angel Cabral was struck four times. Both of them, along with 21-year-old Wallmer Carreras, are all facing charges as a result.

"My two sons ... they thought the same way of getting out and getting help and they did an excellent job ... they saved my whole family's life," Maria said.

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