ORLANDO – Orlando police are hunting for two black or Hispanic men who broke into a home in Delaney Park armed with a machete, then fled on foot after one the home’s occupants fired a gun at them.

It happened shortly after 1 p.m. today at a house on Phillips Place, a dead end street off Delaney Avenue.  The people living in the house were not injured, although the man sustained scratches to his shoulder following a struggling with one of the suspects, said Sergeant Barbara Jones of the Orlando Police Department’s public information office.

“The chase is still up, and we’re working on it,” Jones said.

The normally quiet neighborhood was anything but that this afternoon, as police cruisers blocked off some nearby streets, helicopters flew overhead looking for the two suspects, and officers walked the local streets with police dogs in an attempt to figure out where the two suspects disappeared to.

“Right now, it’s a residential burglary,” Jones said.  “We’re still looking for the two suspects.”

They were described as being either black or Hispanic, Jones said, adding that the occupants of the home had some difficulty describing the suspects’ ethnicity because they were wearing masks.

“The male and the female occupant were in the house,” Jones said.  “The female went to look for her purse. She went into another room and that’s when she confronted the suspects.  We don’t know how long they were in there.  A neighbor across the street said she may have seen someone go in there earlier.”

There was a confrontation, which is when the man living in the house got scratched on the arm.

“He may have gotten into a struggle with one of the suspects,” Jones said.  “There was a shot fired, and the suspects fled.”

Outside of the scratches to the male occupant, “Nobody was taken to the hospital with any life threatening injuries,” Jones said.  “None of the victims got shot.” 

As for the gun itself, Jones said it was a handgun and it “does belong to an occupant in the house. The gun is not a suspect’s gun.”

As for the two suspects, “We do know that they fled on foot to the back of the house,” Jones said.  “Who knows, they may have gotten into a car. We know they went on foot, and we searched the area with our canines.”

The suspects were wearing masks while inside the home.

“Their faces were covered,” Jones said, “and they may be carrying a machete.”

Television news crews flocked to the corner of Phillips Place and Delaney Avenue, recording footage of the police cars in front of the home and the helicopters repeatedly flying overhead.

Traffic on Delaney Avenue slowed down to a crawl as motorists tried to catch a glimpse of what was happening at the end of that small dead end street.

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