Masked men storm Durham home, rob family at gunpoint

The nightmare began for Amber Ibarra, her husband, Gregorio Medina, and her four children, aged 11, 8, 5 and 4, around 10:30 p.m. Thursday. Ibarra said that Medina was coming from the store when two men in black hooded sweatshirts and black pants jumped out from behind the family's home on North Guthrie Street and robbed him.

"(They) put a gun to him and told him to give them his money and cell phone," Ibarra said.

Two more men were hiding behind the shed. Three of them were wearing clear plastic masks. All four followed Medina inside the house, Ibarra said.

"They were pushing him up the steps. They made him come up the steps and the open the door," she said.

The men forced the entire family into the living room and searched the home for valuables.

"He was telling us, 'Give me the money now, give me everything, everything you got.' I told him, I said, 'Please, please don't do this. I got children. We don't have money,'" Ibarra said. "The kids were crying and he put the gun on them and he was like, 'Shut up, shut up, everybody shut up!'"

Ibarra said she and her children were very frightened, but she refused to let the robbers shake her sense of security.

"They're not going to run me out of my neighborhood," she said. "This is my neighborhood. This is my children's neighborhood."

The family has rented the house for 4 years, Ibarra said. Medina has lived there for 7. This wasn't his first brush with crime in the neighborhood. Ibarra said he was shot in the arm during a robbery in the backyard about 4 years ago.

Police said they are looking for suspects in the home invasion. Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 919-683-1200.