Horror-costumed trio banged on home's front door late at night and 'threatened to kill us,' woman says. Then cops intervened.

A trio dressed in Halloween horror costumes were caught on doorbell video banging on the front door of a Northern Virginia home late at night and threatening those inside earlier this month.

"It's either you coming out or we coming in!" one voice can be heard on the video, WUSA-TV reported, adding that another shouted, "Open the door!"

'My heart dropped when they said that they were gonna take a chair and break down the door.'

A woman named Shayla — who told the station she was staying with her mother in her Alexandria home — added that "they kept, like, knocking on the door. The knocks would get harder and harder."

Shayla told WUSA she called 911 and warned the group that police were on the way, but she said that didn't deter them, and they continued shouting and trying to force their way in.

Worse still, Shayla told the station the trio "threatened to kill us."

Plus, she added to WUSA that when they couldn't get in through the front door, they moved to the back of the house.

"This whole thing they broke down, as you can tell," Shayla explained to the station in the aftermath as she showed damage to the backyard fence.

"They hopped up on here and went through there," she added to WUSA as she showed a now-damaged screen-in back porch.

Shayla also told the station that the intruders still ramped things up: "They were just hitting the window. My heart dropped when they said that they were gonna take a chair and break down the door. That is just too much."

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She added to WUSA that "they tried to enter into the home." Shayla explained to the station that other factors made the ordeal worse, especially for her mother: "My dad recently just died, so it's just, like, I'm just glad I was there. But now [my mother's] in fear. She don't wanna stay there by herself."

Fortunately, the ordeal ended after 10 minutes, as she remarked what could have happened — to the intruders.

"It could have been bad," Shayla told WUSA. "Our Second Amendment right was not used and could have been, like being very transparent."

She added a message to the perps, the station said: "The time frame alone, 10 o'clock at night to knock on someone's door in costume is never OK. Halloween, not Halloween, it's never OK."

By Oct. 17, police said they were investigating the case as an attempted burglary.

"This is a very serious matter," Alexandria Police Chief Tarrick McGuire said in a news conference, WUSA noted in a follow-up story. "They began to make threatening and alarming comments to the family ... specifically, they said, 'If you do not come out, we will come in,' and also threatened to do bodily harm, stating that they would ultimately kill them."

Well, police eventually got to the bottom of it — and considering what could have happened, the revelations were disturbing to say the least.

It turns out relatives of the victims in the home were responsible and had been recording video of what they called a prank, WRC-TV reported.

McGuire in a Monday update told WRC that the prank “could have been deadly," especially considering that one of the victims called her brother for help prior to calling police — and he arrived with a gun.

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What's more, McGuire added to the station that several officers dedicated over 100 hours to the investigation.

Several tips from the community led to the suspects — and a female relative confessed, saying that she, her two teenage sons, and a teen nephew approached the home as two adults and a child stood in the background recording video, McGuire noted to WRC.

In the end, the victims didn't press charges, and neither will police, the chief added to the station — with the following caveat: “This will hopefully be a learning experience for this family."

McGuire added to WRC that the adults were guilty of a “moral failure” since they "were engaging in this behavior but also encouraging this behavior."

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