Armed Intruders Elude Police After Terrifying Family, Ransacking House

Three armed men broke into a Mission Hills home Friday morning, rousted a mother and seven children from their beds, ransacked the house and later eluded capture by a SWAT team and police officers.

Victims Ormides Rosette and her children were not injured. They slipped out of the house through a window and alerted police.

An eighth child, who apparently escaped the intruders’ attention as he lay sleeping under a pile of blankets on the living room sofa, emerged later and told police the house was empty. Police confirmed his report when a SWAT team burst into the house in the 15400 block of Mayall Street.

Police said they believe the break-in is one of a string of similar residential robberies that have occurred in the area over the last six months. Los Angeles Police Sgt. Steve Warren said the men left a clue to their identity: A red Camaro in which they are believed to have arrived was found parked on the street and has been impounded by police.

Members of the Rosette family said their ordeal began when they were awakened about 8 a.m. by three men armed with handguns. The family said they knew none of the intruders.

“We were all asleep and they just busted the door open,” said Vicki Rosette, 14, still shaken by the experience Friday afternoon. “They came in our room, they took the covers off, they put a gun to our body and they put us in our mom’s room.”

Denise Rosette, 13, said that as the men led them into the bedroom, “they were just knocking everything down, like they were looking for something. I thought they were going to shoot us all.” She said the men, who were not masked, gave their orders in Spanish.

After the children, who range in age from 18 months to 23 years, were herded into the bedroom, Ormides Rosette slammed the door closed and began hollering that police were coming. The family slipped out the window one by one, Warren said, and flagged down a passing police car.

Police responded and surrounded the house. They believed the intruders were inside because an officer reported seeing movement. Police also called the house twice and the phone was answered both times.

Shortly afterward, a confused Michael Rosette, 8, emerged unharmed. He told police he had been sleeping under blankets on the sofa and had been awakened by the phone, answered it, then searched the house for his family, Warren said. He reported that he had not seen any strangers, but police were concerned that he might have been coached by the intruders.

Several hours later, at about 12:45 p.m., the SWAT team fired tear gas canisters inside, entered and confirmed that the men had fled.

Warren said the men, possibly frightened by the family’s insistence that police were coming, may have escaped before the family members slipped out.

“They were very brave people,” he said of the family. “They scared the suspects.”