Ain't the same hood
Quincy couple scrambles up to roof to flee home invasion
Armed invaders get away before police arrive
By John Ellement, Globe Staff | August 12, 2005
QUINCY -- A couple escaped three armed gunmen shortly before noon yesterday by climbing out a second-floor window and onto the roof of their home -- where the woman waited under the broiling sun for some 30 minutes before being rescued, police and neighbors said.
The husband jumped from the second-story roof of the rented bungalow, landed on the front lawn, and ran down Montclair Avenue to Mullaney's Variety store on West Squantum Street where he frantically asked a clerk to call police.
The attack left police perplexed as to why the couple and a third person in the house were targeted. Their attackers were Vietnamese and the victims are Chinese, police said. The husband told neighbors he was robbed.
''We have no idea what the purpose for them being there was," said Detective Lieutenant Patrick P. Glynn, commander of the Special Investigations Unit. He would not release the victims identities, who declined comment. He said it was unclear if anything was stolen. The suspects made a clean getaway.
According to police and neighbors, the attack began shortly before 11:30 a.m. when the gunmen forced their way inside the couple's home. A third person, a male relative, was also there, police said.
The attackers rounded up the victims, bound their hands and feet with plastic ties, and led all three to a second-floor bedroom at the front of the house, police said. While the attackers were apparently searching the house, the husband managed to break free and crawled through an open window onto the roof. Then he jumped to the ground and went for help.
The husband ran into the variety store where Joshua P. Smith was manning the counter.
''A man just came running into the store. He was screaming and hollering, 'Call 911! Call 911! Someone's in my house with a gun!,' "' said Smith, who called police at 11:34 a.m. ''He was freaking out."
Smith said the man also told him that his wife was still inside the house and that he feared she was trapped inside with the gunmen. Police said that after he left the house, his wife had escaped her restraints and fled to the roof.
''They all had guns and they were in the house and they were trying to rob him," Smith said the husband told him.
Michael J. Cheney was working at a real estate office at the corner of Montclair and West Squantum streets when he saw a marked cruiser pull into the street. Cheney said he first feared police were going to ticket cars as they have in the past. But he knew things were different when the officer got out of the cruiser.
''I saw him hop out of his car with his gun drawn," said Cheney.
Police quickly started arriving in marked and unmarked cruisers, emerging from their vehicles with their handguns at the ready, according to witnesses.
While the husband was with Smith, the wife managed to crawl out onto the roof near the front of the house and then made her way to the peak where neighbors said they could hear her calling for help. Police quickly spotted her and ordered her to stay put, Glynn said.
''She was trying to escape and she was hiding on the roof," he said.
At its peak, about 15 officers surrounded the house, Glynn said.
The husband gave police the cellphone number of his relative which police used to make sure the man was able to exit the house without being mistaken for a suspect, Glynn said. The victims were not injured.
Glynn said some may consider leaving the woman on the roof as an outrageous act by police. But, he said, police had to act to protect the officers, neighbors, and the woman herself by making sure the intruders had left the building.
''[The roof] was the safest place for her to be at that moment," said Glynn.
Glynn said police were not sure how the suspects escaped. Some witnesses reported seeing the men run away, while others said they spotted the gunmen climbing into a waiting car.
The case remains under investigation, Glynn said.