GASTONIA, N.C. -- With his hands tied and bullet lodged in his neck, 15-year-old Ontario Lynch managed to run to a neighbor’s house for help late Thursday.

His sister heard the shot that hit him just below his eye.

“He was like, ‘Aahhh! They shot me!’” Kerra Lynch said.

The siblings were babysitting their 4- and 2-year-old cousins when four men, three masked and armed, forced their way into the house on East Fourth Avenue.

“They had a gun, and they were like, ‘Get in the living room! Get in the living room! Get in the living room!’” Kerra Lynch said.

She said they made her 2-year-old cousin sit in her lap and then duct-taped her wrists as she wrapped her arms around him.

Her brother's hands were taped behind his back.

She said the unmasked man ran around the house from room to room while the young children cried for their father.

Kerra Lynch said the men yelled, "Get on the ground. Shut up. Make the baby be quiet or we’re going to tie them up and we’re going to shoot you.”

“I was like, ‘Lord, please don't let these people hurt me or my cousins or my brother,’” she said.

Then she said they took her brother into the kitchen, shot him once and then left.

His mother, who was working during the shooting, said Ontario Lynch looked at her when she came to his hospital bed and said, “They shot me.”

Tomeka Lynch said she is confused by the thought that somebody targeted her home.

“I didn't understand why they came here and did my children the way they did,” she said.

Police said it doesn't appear that the intruders were connected to the victims.

“When they just shoot someone for pure meanness, it is obviously a concern of ours,” said Sgt. Michael Lari of the Gastonia Police Department.

Ontario Lynch is expected to recover. Police said it's unclear whether the intruders got away with any money or property.