Atlanta Police say a young father trying to keep home invaders out of his house on Sumter Street was shot in both legs Sunday evening.

Michael and Whitney Lash were home with their infant daughter and a two-year-old son, who was sleeping upstairs, when a pair of black male suspects came to the door around 7:30 p.m., posing as drivers with car trouble and asking to borrow a jack.  Eyewitnesses say two more males were standing by the street.

The young men tried to push their way into the house, with one shooting Mr. Lash twice.  One bullet entered and exited Lash's left thigh; the other hit near his right kneecap.  As the gunfire rang out, Mrs. Lash grabbed their infant daughter and ran out the back.  Her mother says one of the crooks dashed behind her.

"He followed her and caught up with her at the gate and she turned around and said, ‘Please don't shoot me, I have a little baby,'" Jessica Huffman tells Channel 2 Action News.  She says her daughter ran to a neighbor's home.

In a police report, Officer T. Thomas described arriving on the scene to find Lash lying in the home's doorway.

"He flagged me down as I exited my vehicle and I ran over to him. He stated that he'd been shot by a black male in both of his legs. He also stated that his right leg was broken and that he could not feel his right foot," said Thomas's statement.

"I informed Mrs. Lash to grab me something stable to set his right leg on due to his leg being broken," Thomas wrote. "She brought back a foot stool and I laid Mr. Lash down on his back to elevate the wounds above his heart to get blood to flow back towards his core. I then plugged Mr. Lash's left leg wounds with my fingers. I ordered other officers on scene to get a belt so that we could tourniquet his right leg."

Officers pored over the property and found a couple of dollar bills, a cigarette lighter converter, and a phone charger found on the front lawn for clues.  The suspects took the couple' iPhones, which police pinged to a street about a quarter-mile away on Queen St. at La Dawn Avenue, before the phones were turned off.

The accused gunman is described as having a short Afro, with facial tattoos and piercings.  Descriptions of the other three were sparse--just that one of the three was wearing a red shirt, and another was in a blue one.

Lash was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital, where he was said to be in stable condition.

A GoFundMe page has been set up for the family to help cover medical costs, and has already raised over $55,000.