What to Know
- Armed burglars opened fire on a family returning to their Frankford home Monday night.
- Multiple bullets struck the father while a bullet grazed the boy's chest.
- The burglars fled the scene after the shooting.
A father continues to recover after he and his 12-year-old son were shot by gunmen who burglarized their Philadelphia home Monday night.
The 33-year-old man, his wife, 11-year-old daughter and his son returned to their home along Marlowe Street in the Frankford neighborhood around 9:45 p.m. when they noticed something wasn't right, police said.
The family usually enters through the back of the home, according to Philadelphia Police Capt. John Walker.
"As they come to the back of the home they see the rear window broke out," Walker said.
The father jumped over a locked 6-foot gated fence to see what was going on and got onto his porch before the two men inside opened fire multiple times, Walker said.
"He tried to cover my nephew that was behind him so he got the bullet shots," Christine Ortiz, the victim's sister-in-law, told NBC10.
Local
Breaking news and the stories that matter to your neighborhood.
Neighbors said they heard around 10 shots and the family's screams.
The dad was trapped in the yard as he was hit by multiple bullets in his arms, legs and torso, investigators said.
The boy suffered a graze wound to his chest. His sister told NBC10 he pushed her to the side during the shooting.
"Instead of me, it hit him," she said. "Because he saved my life."
NBC10 obtained surveillance video showing the wounded father and son walking across the street moments after the shooting.
"I came out screaming and then I heard my little girl calling the police saying, 'Please come to Marlowe, somebody shot my dad,'" the woman, who did not want to be identified, told NBC10 in Spanish. "We are people who stay away from trouble. Nobody comes to visit us. We are always working."
Police rushed the victims to the hospital where the boy was treated and released while his father was listed in critical condition. Both are expected to survive, Walker said. Family members told NBC10 the father underwent surgery for a broken leg.
The gunmen — described as being in their late 20s, one wearing a gray jacket, the other with a tattoo on his left arm and wearing a red and blue jacket — may have fled in a gold-colored SUV or minivan that was parked at the end of the quiet block, investigators said.
"Hopefully they'll catch the people who did it because they harmed an innocent family that doesn't bother anybody," Ortiz said.
The family moved into the home last year and are now thinking of moving out.
Investigators planned to give the father, who speaks Spanish, time to recover before interviewing him about the incident.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Philadelphia police.
