Video: Armed robbers break into Staten Island home before pistol-whipping girl, mother

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. (PIX11) — A violent and disturbing home invasion targeted a family on Staten Island. Four masked gunmen stormed into the house on Livingston Avenue, leaving a mother and her 5-year-old daughter pistol-whipped.

Home security video shows the gunman bursting into a sleeping family’s home in the dead of night Monday.  

The masked and hooded suspects rummaged through drawers, looking for cash and valuables. 

At one point, a fourth enters the house and is almost shot by his accomplice, according to police. 

Then, they stormed upstairs with flashlights, searching four bedrooms and found two sleeping children, their mother and nanny, Marlene Jones.

"I was sleeping, someone kicked in the door, and I jumped up and saw three men with guns pointed at me," Jones recalled. 

The 54-year-old has been with the family for four years and has been unable to sleep since. She immediately thought about the safety of the 4-year-old boy and 5-year-old girl and began to pray. 

"They went to the little girl's room, pulled her from her bed, hit her in the face with the gun and took her in the mom's room," Jones said.  

With her husband away for the night, the 33-year-old mother, who wished to remain anonymous, said she was also pistol-whipped in the face.

“The minute he brought [my daughter] to my room…when she showed up with the black eye, I thought he could kill us,” she said.

They didn't, and left the home with only a cell phone. 

"The husband was not home at the time, so we're looking at that angle to see if it was something related to his employment," said NYPD Chief of Detectives, Joseph Kenny.  

The Jewish neighborhood watch, Shmira of Staten Island, kept tabs on the home around the clock as the suspects remained on the run. 

"We have additional patrols 24 hours a day, assuring the safety of the community and assuring these perpetrators will be held accountable to the law."

NYPD detectives believe the suspects were amateurs and that no similar robberies have been reported in the borough. 

The family told PIX11 News they are offering $10,000 rewards for anyone with information that leads to an arrest.