ELLWOOD CITY -Lindsay Ostrom spent most of Wednesday painting a room, so she sent her three young children to her mother's house to keep them away from the fumes.
That decision protected the children, all younger than 7, from two gunmen who broke into Ostrom's Ellwood City home at 825 Pershing St just after 10 p.m. Wednesday.
"They just started pointing guns and saying, 'Give us everything,' " Ostrom said.
As of Thursday evening, no arrests had been made in the incident, but borough police said they were tracing a gun that was recovered near Ostrom's home.
Ostrom said two men were black, one wearing a tossel cap pulled over his face with a hole cut for his eyes. She said the second man was wearing a head scarf over his hair and a bandanna around the lower part of his face.
Police said they believe the gun was stolen and that investigators tracing the weapon, hoping it will help identify the invaders.
"We're looking into several leads," said patrolman John Lubich.
At least one gunshot was fired during the incident. Police found a shell casing outside the home.
Terrance Shelby, Lindsay Ostrom's boyfriend, said he was the target of that gunshot. As the two men entered Ostrom's home through the back door, Shelby picked up a young child who was also in the home and tried to run out of the house, but she slipped from his grasp.
Shelby then ran out of the house toward Ellwood City Hospital one block away. As he was running, he said one of the men shot at him.
"I knew if I stopped, I'd have gotten hurt," he said. "I heard a bullet whip past my head."
Police said the two invaders took an undisclosed amount of money, which Ostrom said might have been the motive for the break-in. One of her visitors, a friend of the couple, had received some money from a relative who was awarded several thousand dollars in a lawsuit.
Ostrom said people in the nearby Walnut Ridge public housing development might have known that the friend had a large amount of money.
While the gunmen were in the house, Ostrom's brother Donald said he was trapped in the bathroom. Donald Ostrom said he heard his sister screaming and tried to rush downstairs, when the bathroom door jammed.
By the time he got through the door, Donald Ostrom said, the two gunmen were gone and he called police.
Donald Ostrom said, at police request, everyone involved
gave statements.
Lindsay Ostrom and Shelby said police asked them to have their hands tested for gunshot residue. When Donald Ostrom asked why they wanted to test him, he said officers said he might have been involved.
Lt. Dave Kingston, the police department's ranking officer, said the tests were standard procedure and that officers couldn't rule out any suspects.
Kingston cited recent history to justify investigating victims. Last March, officers were suspicious of a robbery at the Uni-Mart convenience store on Beaver Avenue. In that incident, the clerk said he had been robbed by two black gunmen.
After a six-hour investigation, police charged the clerk in the robbery. At the time, Kingston said the clerk's narrative of the incident contained too many
inconsistencies.
©Ellwood City Ledger 2009
That decision protected the children, all younger than 7, from two gunmen who broke into Ostrom's Ellwood City home at 825 Pershing St just after 10 p.m. Wednesday.
"They just started pointing guns and saying, 'Give us everything,' " Ostrom said.
As of Thursday evening, no arrests had been made in the incident, but borough police said they were tracing a gun that was recovered near Ostrom's home.
Ostrom said two men were black, one wearing a tossel cap pulled over his face with a hole cut for his eyes. She said the second man was wearing a head scarf over his hair and a bandanna around the lower part of his face.
Police said they believe the gun was stolen and that investigators tracing the weapon, hoping it will help identify the invaders.
"We're looking into several leads," said patrolman John Lubich.
At least one gunshot was fired during the incident. Police found a shell casing outside the home.
Terrance Shelby, Lindsay Ostrom's boyfriend, said he was the target of that gunshot. As the two men entered Ostrom's home through the back door, Shelby picked up a young child who was also in the home and tried to run out of the house, but she slipped from his grasp.
Shelby then ran out of the house toward Ellwood City Hospital one block away. As he was running, he said one of the men shot at him.
"I knew if I stopped, I'd have gotten hurt," he said. "I heard a bullet whip past my head."
Police said the two invaders took an undisclosed amount of money, which Ostrom said might have been the motive for the break-in. One of her visitors, a friend of the couple, had received some money from a relative who was awarded several thousand dollars in a lawsuit.
Ostrom said people in the nearby Walnut Ridge public housing development might have known that the friend had a large amount of money.
While the gunmen were in the house, Ostrom's brother Donald said he was trapped in the bathroom. Donald Ostrom said he heard his sister screaming and tried to rush downstairs, when the bathroom door jammed.
By the time he got through the door, Donald Ostrom said, the two gunmen were gone and he called police.
Donald Ostrom said, at police request, everyone involved
gave statements.
Lindsay Ostrom and Shelby said police asked them to have their hands tested for gunshot residue. When Donald Ostrom asked why they wanted to test him, he said officers said he might have been involved.
Lt. Dave Kingston, the police department's ranking officer, said the tests were standard procedure and that officers couldn't rule out any suspects.
Kingston cited recent history to justify investigating victims. Last March, officers were suspicious of a robbery at the Uni-Mart convenience store on Beaver Avenue. In that incident, the clerk said he had been robbed by two black gunmen.
After a six-hour investigation, police charged the clerk in the robbery. At the time, Kingston said the clerk's narrative of the incident contained too many
inconsistencies.
http://ellwoodcityledger.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=20336944&BRD=2724&PAG=461&dept_id=563781&rfi=6
1 comments:
Someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets.
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