PHOENIX — Phoenix police are looking for a man that broke into a north Phoenix home Monday armed with a firearm and a hammer.
One of the victims, who did not want to be identified, told 12 News she was doing laundry and folding clothes around 7:30 a.m. when the man broke into their home near 15th Avenue and Behrend Drive, just south of the Loop 101 Pima Freeway.
“I was in shock for quite a while,” she said. “Just a little while [ago] it hit me. I could picture him with a gun.”
The woman said the suspect got into their house through the back door shortly after her son had taken their dog on a walk. Her daughter-in-law was in a room near the back entrance getting ready for her work from home shift.
“She saw a hand come into the door where she was at, the door was partly open. So, he snuck his head in and he saw her. He held a gun to her,” the woman said.
The suspect asked her daughter-in-law for her cellphone and proceeded to break it. He then moved through the home.
“He went and looked at the bathroom and that’s when she got her opportunity to start running out and yelling at me, ‘there’s an intruder in the house,’" the woman said. “I didn’t know what she was saying so I came to the living room, up to the kitchen to see what she was saying, and I saw the guy pointing the gun at her.”
The two women ran outside the home and into a neighbor’s house where they asked for help and called the police.
The woman said the encounter lasted about five minutes, but at the time “it felt like forever.”
Phoenix police officers arrived on scene, but the suspect got away.
“The concern is for anyone else out here,” the woman said. “Everyone lock their doors.”
The victim’s worry is that the suspect will terrorize another family in her neighborhood.
“I don’t know what he wanted, after we left he could have taken anything, but he didn’t,” the woman said.
If you have any information about the suspected man you’re asked to call the police or Silent Witness at 480-WITNESS.
VERSIÓN EN ESPAÑOL: 'Se sintió como una eternidad': Un hombre armado con una pistola y un martillo irrumpió en una casa al norte de Phoenix
Up to Speed
Catch up on the latest news and stories on the 12 News YouTube channel. Subscribe today.