A Frankford resident who earlier this month had been the victim of a burglary killed two men who broke into his home and wounded two others the night before Thanksgiving, police said.
Police said the men entered the home on the 5200 block of Burton St. through a kitchen window at about 9:50 p.m. on Nov. 24. One was armed, but the 30-year-old resident had a shotgun, which he didn’t hesitate to use, police said.
The resident, who police didn’t identify, killed two of the men and wounded the other men, police said. Police on Monday were still working on the details and couldn’t say if the two wounded men were with the robbers. No one had been charged as the Times went to press.
The wounded men got themselves to hospitals later. One 20-year-old was in Albert Einstein Medical Center with wounds to a hand, a leg and his buttocks. Another man, 22, was in Aria Health’s Frankford campus in critical condition with a wound to his abdomen.
Police didn’t identify the dead men pending notification of family. They didn’t ID the wounded men either.
The resident armed with the shotgun was not alone in the home, police said. A man and two women, all in their early 20s, were in the home, too.
The house had been burglarized on Nov. 6, police said, adding that one of the men who went to the house on Nov. 24 might have been involved. Taken Nov. 6 was a video game system, two laptop computers and two cell phones, police said.
Capt. Frank Bachmayer, the 15th Police District’s commander, said the same home was the target of a home invasion in September.
Four neighbors interviewed Friday said Burton Street and nearby blocks have seen a lot of home invasions in the last six months. The captain on Monday said he checked records and said that the 15th district, the city’s largest, has had more than a dozen home invasions since early September, but not a lot in and near Burton Street.
He said some of these actually were domestic cases.
One neighbor said he talked to the resident who killed the two men and said police brought the man back to his house wearing a bulletproof vest.
“He’s moving out,” the neighbor said. “He’s afraid of retaliation.”
That neighbor said he didn’t want to give his name because he, too, was afraid of retaliation from the dead men’s friends or family members. He said he saw his neighbor kill one of the robbers on his front lawn. He said he believed the dead men lived in the neighborhood, but he said he didn’t know their identities.
No other Burton Street residents interviewed Friday wanted to give their names. ••
Reporter John Loftus can be reached at 215–354–3110 or jloftus@bsmphilly.com
