ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Editor’s note: The accompanying video was initially released on Oct. 15, 2025.

A family prank took a terrifying turn in Alexandria when three masked individuals threatened to break into a home, police stated. This unsettling incident involved family members and led to a considerable scare.

Disturbing surveillance footage, obtained by WUSA9, captured the masked figures, disguised in Halloween costumes, aggressively banging on the door of a residence located near Duke and South Jordan Streets.

Two weeks following the alarming event and after an extensive 100-hour investigation, authorities have identified the masked individuals as the family’s own cousins. They had traveled from Fairfax County with the intent of giving their relatives a fright.

Days after the first press conference, after receiving tips police contacted a woman who confessed that she, her two sons, her nephew, two other adults and another child were responsible for the prank. Alexandria Police Chief Tarrick McGuire said she waited in the car while the three teenage boys wore the masks and approached the home. The two other adults and child were nearby, some filming on a cellphone and some sitting in a second car. The boys seen in the video are all between 14 and 16 years old.

The family will not press charges, so the trio will not be publicly identified, McGuire said. The commonwealth’s attorney also declined to bring charges.

“While this incident may not result in a criminal prosecution, for me, my team, and for this community, it represents a moral failure,” McGuire said. “A moral failure where consequences could result in deadly consequences. I want to specify this because we have saw this type behavior around the country where people have done pranks and they have resulted in people being seriously injured or losing their lives.”

Shayla, the woman inside the home who called 911, initially called her brother. Shayla was visiting her mother at the house during the incident. Her brother then came to the house with a gun, McGuire said.

“Absolutely it could have resulted deadly,” McGuire said.

McGuire made it very clear that neither Shayla nor anyone else in her immediate family knew the relatives were coming. Shayla said it wasn’t a prank to them at all.

“It’s not even a joke gone wrong,” Shayla told WUSA9’s Katie Lusso. “They tried to enter into the home. My heart dropped when they said they were gonna take a chair and break down the door.”

It’s not clear what the motive was aside from it being intended as a prank, McGuire said. It’s also not clear why they didn’t come forward themselves after police began investigating.