A Somers Point family whose home was set on fire as they slept is still trying to understand what happened.
DeShaun Howard, the man charged with setting the blaze just before 4 a.m. March 23, has known the family for years.
He has been friends with their 19-year-old daughter and the two worked together at Wawa, said homeowners Samantha and Rick, who asked that their last names not be printed.
"He spent time in our home," Samantha said. "He called me mom. He's eaten dinner here. He would wait with (my daughter) at work if I was running a couple of minutes late. It's just baffling to us."
The family was asleep inside.
"When you do nothing wrong to anybody and they try to kill you in your sleep, it's very shocking and frightening," Rick said.
It was the couple's habit of sleeping with the bedroom window open that helped save them, Samantha said.
Rick woke up out of a dead sleep smelling the smoke, she said.
"You could see the flames up to our bedroom window about to get in," she recalled.
They called for their daughter and got their pets out.
As the firefighters worked, Samantha noticed a big box of matches on the ground.
"I thought, 'That's out of place,'" she said. "I said to the police, 'That's not ours.'"
Then she saw a giant bottle lying between the bushes under the living room window. That wasn't theirs either.
They would later be told it a was a washer fluid bottle that had been emptied and filled with the gas used to douse the home.
Howard and Tompkins are charged with aggravated arson, criminal mischief and conspiracy.
"I'm confused as to why he got released," Rick said. "It was basically attempted manslaughter."
They now worry if something more could happen.
Howard already showed up to their daughter's job at Wawa, where he used to pump gas, the couple said.
The manager threatened to call the police.
Howard's attorney confirmed there is a protective order in place, so his client could have been arrested.
He said that Howard is on medication.
The family home suffered thousands of dollars in damage.
The case is set to go before the grand jury for indictment.
