A 14-year-old boy shot an intruder at a Laveen home near 55th and Minton avenues Friday afternoon, police said.

The boy was home with his three siblings, ranging in age from 8 to 12, when he saw a woman they did not recognize at the front of the house around 4:30 p.m. She began pounding on the door, said James Holmes, a Phoenix police spokesman.

The boy went upstairs and got a handgun, police said. A man with a rifle had forced his way into the home. He aimed the gun at the boy, and the boy shot him, police said.

The boy and his three siblings left the house and went to a neighbor's house, where the boy called police and his father, Holmes said.

"He took an action that no police officer, certainly no one in our community, wants a 14-year-old to have to take," Holmes said. "And yet he's safe, his siblings are safe, and so now we have to figure out why this happened and why these people were there."

Police were unsure whether the man and woman were the only two involved. There may have been other accomplices, police said.

The man was taken to St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in critical condition, according to Jonathan Jacobs, a Phoenix Fire Department spokesman.

Authorities were still looking for the woman Friday night. A description of the woman wasn't available, Holmes said.

The case remains under investigation.