TAMARAC, FLA. (WSVN) - A 911 call was released, Friday, after a man barged into a South Florida couple’s home with a firearm on July 21.
“911, what is your emergency?” said an operator.
“Please, there’s someone in my house with a gun,” Irene Rosen is heard responding before screaming over the 911 call during a situation that unfolded just a week ago.
According to the Broward Sheriff’s Office, Rosen and her husband Louis Rosen were sitting inside their Tamarac home when their neighbor’s son forced his way inside.
“It was surreal,” she said. “It was like an out-of-body experience and what made it more out-of-body – like I’ve said before – I did not know the person, but I know his parents. They’re lovely people – people next door.”
Irene added that when their neighbor’s son, 45-year-old Leonard Benitez, arrived asking to borrow sugar, the couple was not suspicious at all.
“I was lulled into a full sense of just being plain old neighborly,” she said. “I was sitting at my little kitchen table, and he pulled out a gun.
Officials said he demanded the couples’ banking information in order to get $50,000.
“He wanted our bank accounts, maybe make some calls and he make calls,” said Irene.
During the ordeal, officials said, Benitez struck 99-year-old Louis Rosen on his head with a firearm.
“It was a harrowing experience,” said Louis. The World Wart II veteran had to be rushed to the hospital for injuries.
The suspect’s father said he was shocked at his son’s actions and said Benitez needs psychological help.
According to BSO, Irene Rosen was able to call 911 at some point. Police said the suspect can be heard over the call ordering his victims around the house.
“Why’d you call the cops?” he asks.
“Nobody answered,” said Irene. “You came out.”
Benitez then yells, “Get over here!”
Irene then screams for help.
Deputies arrived and called SWAT officers when Benitez barricaded himself in his own residence.
Benitez eventually surrendered and is now being held on charges of kidnapping and attempted home invasion. No bond has been granted.
A week following the incident, Irene broke into tears upon hearing the 911 call.
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