Teenage girl, dog fight off home invasion suspect in Florence Township

FLORENCE TOWNSHIP, N.J. (FOX 29) - A 15-year-old girl, with the help of her dog, fought off an alleged home intruder in Florence Township on Monday.

Surveillance footage from the family's doorbell camera captured her running for help.

"It was fight or flight and there was nowhere to run," the victim explained to FOX 29's Shawnette Wilson.

FOX 29 is not identifying the family to protect the young victim's privacy.

"I have a black eye, my lip was busted and [I have] a knot on my forehead," the victim showed Wilson.

The incident happened around 8 p.m. while the victim was in the shower. Her mother and brother had just left the home.

When the victim exited the shower, her dog was barking and running up and down the stairs. She followed him down to the basement where she heard a tapping sound.

"Before I turned the light switch on I heard the alarm go 'beep, beep,' and I could hear it in the room faintly and it made me freeze," she recalled.

"I felt someone grab me. They grabbed my left wrist, so I turned and punched them with my right hand," she said. "He pulled me with him and then pushed me into the wall and had his hands around my neck. There was nowhere to run. So I was fighting."

Her dog eventually got between the two, giving her a chance to run out of the house to a neighbor, who is a police officer.

"There hasn't been a time I did not think about it," she said. "When I go to sleep I'm thinking about it."

The girl's father is going through a range of emotions in the wake of the attack.

"I was pissed off," he said. "I mean, she was violated."

The father has since made several changes to improve their home security, including to the back door, the glass of which the suspect broke to gain entry.

Still, the father knows the incident has left a permanent mark with his daughter.

"Her sense of security within her home was taken from her," he said. "She didn't know if she was going to live or die, and that is hard to hear your child tell you."

Florence Township police charged 20-year-old Jayton Robinson with burglary, simple assault and criminal mischief in connection with the incident, though a motive has yet to be disclosed.