Homeowner recounts terrifying break‑in before neighbor fatally shoots intruder in Rhawnhurst

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- A woman and her 14-year-old daughter say they feared for their lives early Monday morning when a man forced his way into their second-floor apartment in the Rhawnhurst section of Philadelphia.

Evelyn Leiva said she awoke just after 1 a.m. to a loud noise, which she later learned was the sound of her door being broken down on the 1600 block of Griffith Street.

"Big noise, like broke something," she recalled.

Leiva said she found a man she didn't recognize in her daughter Valentina's bedroom, holding what she described as a metal tube.

She confronted him, and a struggle began.

"Valentina sleeping here - this guy fighting to me here," she said while showing Action News the room where the encounter happened.

Valentina said she initially thought her mother's screams were part of a dream.

"I heard her screaming but I thought I was dreaming, so I didn't wake up immediately, like my eyes just wouldn't open, and then when I actually opened my eyes she was pushing him out of my room," she said.

Leiva said she yelled for help.

Her downstairs neighbor heard the cries and ran upstairs. Leiva and her daughter fled to his apartment to hide. Police said a struggle then took place on the second floor, and at some point, the neighbor shot the intruder in the chest.

The man was pronounced dead at a hospital shortly afterward.

Leiva said she believes the neighbor saved their lives.

"This guy no help me, this guy kill me," she said through tears.

Valentina said the moments after the break-in were chaotic and frightening.

"Because we're just terrified, she's telling me, get up, we have to run, there's someone in the house. He broke down the door," she said.

Police have not said whether any charges will be filed. The identity of the intruder has not been released, and homicide detectives continue to investigate.