Staten Island mom details ‘hostage’ home invasion horror after daughter, 5, pistol-whipped

Four callous crooks pistol-whipped a 5-year-old girl and her mother, an Israeli immigrant, during a brazen raid of their Staten Island home, the shaken and bruised mom recounted Tuesday.

The masked intruders, three of whom brandished guns, demanded jewelry but left with only two cellphones in the Monday heist in Manor Heights.

“When we were all in the room like hostages I was like, ‘We can die right now,'” the shaken Staten Island mom, who wished not to be named, told the Daily News. “The minute they left we started crying hysterically. Everything was blood and all of my face was (bloody).”

The gunmen kicked open the front door of the home near Livingston Ave. and Queen St. about 12:40 a.m. Monday, cops said.

The robbers, each wearing hoodies and masks, were caught on surveillance cameras entering the home and searching the residence with a flashlight.

“They really had balls because they weren’t like trying quietly,” the mom said. “I guess they were looking for a safe or something and then when they couldn’t find it they came to my bedroom door.”

Before entering the mother’s bedroom, the crooks pistol-whipped the child and grabbed the girl’s 53-year-old nanny to use as leverage against the family matriarch.

One of the crooks threw the girl to the floor. She suffered a concussion and was vomiting after the attack, Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said at a Tuesday news briefing.

“They turned on the light and they put a gun to me and (one of the crooks) said, ‘B—h, where’s the money?” the 33-year-old mom recalled, still sporting a swollen black eye and cut on her forehead. “It looked like he was angry …. Then I said, ‘What?'”

The crook responded by striking her in the face with the butt of his pistol, the woman recalled.

“From the shock and the pain I didn’t even cry,” she remembered. “I was like, ‘Just take whatever you want. I have kids, please. Whatever you want.’ He started getting upset and pumped up. He’s like ‘Where’s the jewelry?'”

A moment later, the gunmen brought in the nanny and her 5-year-old daughter. The child’s eye was black and blue.

“When they brought her to my room I was in shock,” she said. “I (thought) they’re never going to wake up the kids. And then I saw her and I was in shock. I said, ‘Just take whatever you want!'”

The crooks continued to rummage through the home but only left with the mom and the nanny’s cellphone, which they took to prevent them from calling 911. But the nanny had a backup phone the crooks didn’t find so the family was able to call 911.

Kenny described the robbers as “amateurish,” revealing that at one point, one of the crooks was nearly shot when he encountered his cohorts in the kitchen.

“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,” he said. “So it’s a serious matter.”

The child’s father wasn’t home at the time of the raid, the woman said. The woman’s 4-year-old son, who is on the spectrum, was home but not harmed.

“They went into his room, they saw him, they walked out,” she said.

Medics took both mom and daughter to Staten Island University Hospital where their cuts and bruises were treated.

Hours later, the smiling 5-year-old girl was back to prancing around the home and coloring.

“She’s in a very good mood, thank God,” the mother said, still wondering why the thieves had zeroed in on her front door.

“I think it was targeted, meaning they knew where to come, because my husband wasn’t home that night,” she said. “They knew he’s not going to be home so they chose to come at that time.”

Police are investigating a theory that the family was attacked because of their work, in which they sell homes in New Jersey, Kenny said.

The family has only been living in the home for about a year, she said. Although she is Israeli, she doesn’t believe she was targeted because of her religion.

“I don’t know if it’s antisemitic, I don’t think so,” she said. “I mean when he spoke to us, he did have a lot of anger.”

Yet the experience has left her with an even deeper empathy for her fellow Israelis after Hamas raided Jewish homes on Oct. 7, killing civilians and taking hostages.

“I was thinking about the people in Israel,” she said. “Like to be woken up from your sleep…”

Police on Tuesday released surveillance images of the masked crooks in the hopes someone recognizes them.

Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.