Three men who robbed a Queens home in the dead of night Saturday — terrorizing the family inside before leading police on a wild chase that ended in their arrest — were hit with a slew of charges Sunday, including kidnapping, assault, burglary, and criminal possession of a weapon.
If convicted, the defendants face a maximum of 25 years in prison.
Around 2:15 a.m. Saturday, the men — identified as Brandon Dash, 39, Ryan Dash, 34, and Jone Smith, 47 — forced their way into the single-family home located just a block from Grand Central Parkway on Marathon Parkway and Cullman Ave. in Little Neck, panicking the family inside, including three children.
The victims were a 72-year-old man and a 71-year-old woman, along with another woman, 44, and another 43-year-old man, a boy, 13, and two girls ages 10 and 1, cops said. After entering the house, the trio of thieves woke the homeowners at gunpoint and demanded they hand over any money in the house.
One of the kidnappers brandished a gun, and the other two carried hammers, according to court documents. All three wore masks.
The men physically restrained the family, but the younger woman was able to escape carrying the year-old girl and called the police, cops said.
Smith, who also goes by the name Conrad Harrigan, and Brandon and Ryan Dash left the house with more than $10,000 and tried to evade police, but were eventually caught and arrested after a long chase, according to court documents.
Before leaving the house, the suspects punched the older woman in the face and struck the younger man on the foot with a hammer. They were treated at a hospital for minor injuries.
Responding officers used drones and encircled the home. Using night vision, the drones then recorded the three suspects as they climbed out of a kitchen window and began to flee, according to police.
“The cops chased them and ran through the yard. They caught one of the guys at the side of my house,” neighbor Richard Leung told the Daily News on Saturday.
Leung, 55, said he saw one of the suspects walking near the home Friday evening.
“I don’t know what he was doing. I looked out my window and I saw him walking around,” the neighbor said. “Maybe he was staking out houses. He didn’t look familiar.”
“As alleged, these three defendants held a family of eight people, including children, as hostages, while displaying a gun and two hammers,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said at the arraignment on Sunday. “These victims showed incredible courage during a home invasion in which a mother escaped with her youngest child and called 911. These defendants not only threatened the family, but also destroyed the family’s sense of safety in their own home.”
All three suspects were remanded, and are due back in court Aug. 22.
