Richmond, TX – Three masked gunmen burned a 7-year-old boy with scalding water, and bashed the child’s father in the head, during a midnight home invasion on Monday.

“This is the worst kind of crime against a family,” Fort Bend County Sheriff Troy Nehls told KHOU. “Three crooks forcing their way into a home in the middle of the night is appalling. To make matters worse, they accosted a 7-year-old child. They’re cowards, to say the least. Someone has information.”

Fort Bend County sheriff’s deputies responded to an urgent care center in Richmond at approximately 3 a.m. on June 25, after four victims of the invasion were brought in for treatment, KHOU reported.

Investigators learned that three masked men broke down the front door of the family’s home as they slept, then terrorized the victims for about an hour while they ransacked the residence looking for cash and valuables.

The assailants tortured the father for an hour, and struck him in the head with the grip of a handgun during the attack.

Then they used a 4-year-old boy and a 7-year-old boy as leverage to force the parents into telling them where their cash and jewelry were hidden, KTRK reported.

At one point, the masked men forced the 7-year-old child into a tub of scalding hot water, according to KHOU.

The boy was being treated for fluid in his lungs as of late Monday morning, Sheriff Nehls tweeted.

He was expected to recover from his injuries.

“Those are our little brothers,” Sarah McCoy, the children’s sister who was not at the home during the attack, told KPRC. “Why would someone come in and do that to them to get information, to get money? That’s pathetic.”

The child’s father was treated for a gash to his head and has been released from the hospital, KTRK reported.

“I saw him all bloody and a gash on his head,” the man’s brother, Mohamad Ghiri, told KPRC. “He was shaken up. I tried to calm him down but he was just worried about his son.”

The intruders stole a cell phone, cash, jewelry, and a set of car keys before they fled the area, KTRK reported.

The family was likely targeted because the father is the owner of an auto body shop, investigators said.

The department is “aggressively working” to identify and apprehend the gunmen, Sheriff Nehls said.