East Renton family hoping for leads and justice after violent home invasion

King County detectives are working to build leads as they search for four mask-wearing armed men who burst through the doors of an East Renton's family home at 8:45 p.m. Monday, and violently attacked each family member.

"It started when we heard a couple of loud thundering booms downstairs," said homeowner Steve Guggenmos, who said he and his wife and their two sons, ages 17 and 20 were in their bedrooms when the robbers broke through the locked front door.

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"About seven seconds after we heard that thunderous boom, our door to the bedroom explodes open," Guggenmos said. "There's shrapnel flying, and two masked gunmen with their faces covered have guns at us. They're yelling at us, asking 'Where's the cash? Where's the drugs? Where's the meth?!"'

Guggenmos said he quickly realized the robbers had the wrong address, because there had never been drugs or large amounts of cash in his home. Guggenmos was beaten by one of the robbers when he saw one of them dragging his wife--a breast cancer patient--out of a bathroom by her hair.

"I said 'Leave her alone! She just had breast cancer surgery!' (The masked robber) took one step and popped me on the top of my head with his gun, splitting my head open," he said.

"They got a little cash and they took our cellphones but that's all," Guggenmos said. "Nothing else is really disturbed, just flipped where they came in and attacked. And I think they realized, 'we got the wrong place."'

The robbers dumped the phones two miles away, as they drove past a Dairy Queen at 4700 NE 4th St.

Guggenmos and King County detectives are asking anyone who lives along the main routes the robbers would have taken through his East Renton neighborhood to check their surveillance cameras for recordings made Monday, March 4 between 8:15 and 9:30 p.m..

The possible routes are Renton's SE 142nd Street, 156th Avenue SE and Northeast 4th Street including Jericho and Duvall Avenues Monday between 8:15 and 9:30 p.m..

“People should also get to know their neighbors, and let them know you’re looking out for them,” Guggenmos said, adding that support from his East Renton neighborhood  is helping his family to cope with the trauma of the home invasion.

"We're not sure what we're doing tomorrow," Guggenmos said. "It's taken our lives in a direction that we had no idea was going to happen."

Cox Media Group