Roanoke police Wednesday were investigating a home invasion during which, among other items, $15 was taken from a child.

According to a search warrant filed in Roanoke Circuit Court, officers responded about 6:30 a.m. Tuesday to a residence in the 1000 block of 12th Street Southeast. A male, who did not speak English, told police through a translator that three men had broken into his bedroom and assaulted him. The men took his cellphone, he said, and forced him upstairs where they encountered two other residents, an unidentified male and a 9-year-old child. The robbers took cash from the child and a wallet from the male. A digital camera was also taken.

The warrant states the three robbers were wearing black masks with colored markings and black gloves and were carrying a baseball bat and a black handgun. The victims said the robbers fled in a gold or silver vehicle they thought was a Chevrolet Blazer.

About 11 a.m. Tuesday, the warrant says, police responded to a disorder in the 1400 block of Towne Square Boulevard Northwest. There, officers spoke with three men and searched their sport utility vehicle, a silver 2005 Kia. Inside the SUV, police discovered a black mask with red symbols, several pairs of black gloves, a black BB pistol, a collapsible police-style baton, a cellphone and a baseball bat. A victim later identified the mask and the baton as items used during the robbery, the warrant says.

The men told police they had spent the night at an apartment in the 900 block of Bullitt Avenue Southeast. Police searched the apartment looking for objects taken from the 12th Street residence, but the victim's wallet, phone and camera do not appear on the warrant return. The return indicates that police seized, among other items, two cellphones of a different brand than the victim's, a black mask, a black glove, a laptop computer and a set of digital scales.

Police spokeswoman Aisha Johnson said Wednesday night that no charges have been filed, but said the incident remains under investigation.

-- Neil Harvey