A family of four was sleeping in their Staten Island home before dawn on Monday when four “amateurish” armed suspects burst inside, pistol-whipping a woman and attacking her 5-year-old daughter in what police said was a targeted attempt to steal money and jewelry.
“Give me the money!” one of the gun-wielding masked intruders screamed at the sleeping homeowner, she told The Post.
The violent heist was caught on home security cameras near Livingston Avenue and Queen Street in Manor Heights around 12:45 a.m., according to cops.
The suspects, masked men in hooded sweatshirts, were seen entering the home after cops said they kicked in the door.
Three of them were seen brandishing handguns as they made their way through the home, which was occupied by the young girl, an autistic 4-year-old boy, their 33-year-old mother and a 54-year-old nanny, police said.
One of the men targeted the mother, hitting her in the head with a gun when she proved foggy and confused by Ambien.
“I was alone. I was sleeping. That’s the scary part because they knew they knew my husband was not home…first thing I realized, they turned on the light, and they put the gun in my head, and he’s like ‘b—h, give me the money,’” the woman, who asked to remain anonymous, said.
“I was in shock. And then I said, ‘Usually, my husband leaves money here,’” she said of the walk-in closet.
When the gunman couldn’t find any money inside, he smashed her face into the closet door frame, an attack that was caught on the home security system.
Although the brutality left her cut and bleeding, she said she was too “freaked out” to feel the pain.
The gunman then went downstairs to look for money elsewhere. One of his conspirators then brought her daughter and nanny into the room.
“While this happens, the other guy brings my daughter, and he puts her on the floor. And in the beginning, I was not freaking out. I said they’re not gonna do anything to the kids, but he brought her in and she had a huge bruise. I don’t know where he did it,” she said.
After seeing her daughter’s injuries, she feared the thieves were capable of anything, including shooting her young family. Somehow, they didn’t find her young son, who slept through the attack.
The thieves eventually rushed out, only making off with cell phones, according to police.
The mother and daughter were taken to the hospital, where the girl was given a CAT scan and diagnosed with a concussion.
“The mom suffers a laceration to her head from being hit with a gun and the 5-year-old female is somehow struck in the face. We don’t know how because one of the perpetrators threw the child to the floor. We’re not sure if she sustained that injury from that or from being struck by one of the perpetrators,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told reporters Tuesday.
The mother “immediately” told the suspects where to find the money and jewels they were after, but the thieves apparently couldn’t find the goods where she told them to search, police said.
The mother told The Post she has a strong reason to believe the robbery was carefully planned because the robbers knew her husband wasn’t going to be home.
Investigators also believe the robbery was “targeted” — but that doesn’t mean the operation was sophisticated, with Kenny calling the suspects “amateurish.”
“At one point when the three of them make entry with the guns a fourth perpetrator joins them in the kitchen and almost gets himself shot, which I thought would have been ironic,” Kenny said.
“They don’t seem to really know what they’re doing. They don’t seem to be familiar with the location, quite frankly a little amateurish if you ask me,” he added.“But obviously they had no problem pistol-whipping an innocent woman in front of her child and hitting that child to the point she gained a concussion and she was vomiting.”
The family is installing additional security cameras and has been placed under 24/7 watch by the Jewish neighborhood watch group Shmira.
“We’re afraid that the cops are going to give up at some point. The whole neighborhood is terrified,” the husband said.
The mom was left “traumatized,” her sister said Tuesday afternoon.
“The whole situation freaks her out a little bit,” said the woman, who asked The Post to withhold her name.
When asked if her sister was targeted, she said, “I think it was just about the money.”
No arrests have been made.