Boy's 911 Call Saves His Family

Norwalk - A 7-year-old Norwalk boy who hid in a locked bathroom and dialed 911 when three gunmen barged into his family's home was being hailed as a hero today.

The gunmen burst into the home about 8:30 a.m. Tuesday through an unlocked front door and announced they were there to take whatever they wanted, sheriff's Lt. Steve Kenny said.

The 7-year-old boy, identified only as Carlos, hid in a locked bathroom with his 6-year-old sister and called 911.

You can hear a recording of the boy's 911 call in the video.

"If not for the brave and educated actions of the 7-year-old boy, this might have ended tragically," sheriff's Capt. Pat Maxwell said. "If a witness can provide more information on these suspects, we can stop this from happening to someone else."

According to a tape of the 911 call, Carlos breathlessly pleaded with dispatcher Monique Patino to send help -- including "soldiers."

"There's some guys. They're going to kill my mom and dad. Can you come please?" the boy says on the 911 recording."Can you come really fast? Please? Please?"

"Can you tell me what happened?" Patino asks.

"They come ... they ring the door and they have guns to shoot my mom and dad," The boy says. "Can you come really fast? Bring cops ..."

The boy told the dispatcher that he was hiding in the bathroom with his sister.

"OK. I have them coming," Patino says. "Listen to me. I have them coming ..."

The 911 call ends with the sound of screaming, and Patino saying it sounded like the suspects had found the children and grabbed them.

The Sheriff's Department initially reported that the boy told the suspects he had called 911, prompting the invaders to flee. The men drove away in a gray two-door Acura RXS, officials said. Nobody was injured.

But Carlos, who visited the Norwalk sheriff's station today met Patino in person, insisted that the suspects never found him and his sister in the bathroom.

"They (the suspects) were next to the door with my mom and dad, my mom was putting her hands up and her head down," he told reporters. "Me and my sister were at the bathroom, and calling 911.

"... When one of the cops cars came, they just ran," he said.

Carlos said his mother taught him how to dial 911.

"We practice it every day," he said.

Asked if he was scared, he replied, "Just a little bit."

Asked what his mother said about how he handled the situation after it was all over, he replied in a matter-of-fact tone, "excellent."

Carlos hugged Patino, who was brought to tears by the whole incident.

She said she was convinced at the end of the call that the suspects had found the children.

"In the middle of me talking to him ... and then they heard me talking to him when they were coming in the bathroom, when I heard the voices and heard the screaming, I mean, instantly my first reaction is they found the kids, they found the kids," Patino said.

"To hear him talking in person it kind of just brought back the memories of that phone call," she said. "I mean, even hearing the phone call through the interviews was tough to stomach, because, I mean, I could hear them scream."

Carlos, as he was being led away from reporters, said he didn't scream.

"It was my sister," he insisted.

Patino said she told Carlos he was very brave "and I'm very proud of what he did."

"I told him he's my little hero," she said.

"He seems very sharp for his age. I mean, he remembers details, and some people get tunnel vision. They don't remember, you know, the clothing of the person standing right in front of them from five minutes ago, the person they just talked to. So, I mean, pretty sharp."

Anyone with more information about the three gunmen was asked to call sheriff's deputies at (562) 863-8711.