LI Family Shaken After Police Say Man Breaks Into Home, Assaults 85-Year-Old Woman

COLD SPRING HARBOR, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- A Long Island family is shaken after police said a man broke into their home Thanksgiving night and assaulted an elderly relative.

It happened around 11 p.m. Thursday at a home on Fox Hunt Lane in Cold Spring Harbor.

Police said Jeffrey Rice slipped into the home through an unlocked side door, grabbed a kitchen knife and headed upstairs where he entered the bedroom of a 7-year-old girl and her 85-year-old aunt.

That's when police said Rice assaulted the elderly woman. The homeowners and other visiting relatives heard screams and confronted Rice.

"My daughter was in the room and escaped, ran downstairs and told my in-laws to call 911 which I had already done from upstairs," the homeowner told CBS2's Jennifer McLogan in an exclusive interview. "He cornered my husband and I in our bedroom."

The 35-year-old homeowner and her 37-year-old husband tried to grab the knife and were able to call for help from a brother and brother-in-law, who all subdued Rice and held him until officers arrived, police said.

"He was definitely on drugs, maybe PCP or something," the wife told McLogan. "He was completely hallucinating. He took some swings at my husband. Our bed is shattered in our room and, you know, my husband had a baseball hat."

The elderly aunt was taken to Huntington Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

"She's pretty bruised up and swollen, but thank God everything's been OK at the hospital," the wife said.

Rice was arrested on first-degree burglary charges and is set to be arraigned Friday.