A Florida family is recalling the terror of a man showing up at their front door recently, armed with an AR-15 and donning a bulletproof vest.
"At that point it was like, ‘Oh my God, he's here to kill us," Lea D’Errico told Inside Edition.
She ran to the bathroom with her two kids when they saw the man around 11 p.m. on Sept. 5.
"I was just freaking out in the bathroom," she said. "I took me and my kids in — there’s no window or anything so I had no idea where he was."
Lea's husband, Thomas, was 3,000 miles away on a business trip in California and was watching everything happening in real time on his cellphone via the Ring doorbell app.
"It was the fear immediately of, 'What is this man doing at my house? And why is he there with a weapon and a vest?' And just the same time of the helpless feeling of, 'My family's in danger and there's nothing I can do about it at this moment,'” he said.
They quickly realized that the armed man at the front door was actually their neighbor from across the street.
Kevin Flaherty, 48, was looking for his daughter, who had sought sanctuary in the D'Errico home three days earlier when her parents got into an argument, according to published reports.
Flaherty walked away after no one answered the door.
“He pulled out his weapon as well on his family," Thomas said. "There was never an arrest made that night because there was no proof of anything."
Flaherty was arrested on Sept. 6, however, and charged by the Palm Beach Sheriff’s office with three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill in connection with Sept. 5 incident at the D’Errico residence. He has been ordered to stay 200 feet away from his neighbor's home.
His daughter was not at the D'Errico residence when he showed up.
RELATED STORIES
Woman Seen in Shackles on Doorbell Cam Defends Boyfriend Accused of Assaulting Her
Mystery Woman Seen in Shackles Ringing Doorbell in Texas Has Been Found Safe
Texas Cops Hoping to Unlock Mystery of Barefoot Woman in Shackles Seen Ringing Doorbells