Butler police Thursday charged two men with breaking into a home and holding two women at gunpoint last week.

During the 20-minute ordeal, one of the armed intruders threatened to kill the women before beating it out the back door just as police got there, investigators said.

But in his getaway, Zacharri W. Renick dropped his gun, a loaded semi-automatic pistol. Police later recovered the gun, which authorities believe Renick had stolen from a relative.

Renick, 22, of Clearfield Township and his alleged accomplice, Donte A. Brandon, 18, of Butler, are in Butler County Prison and were arraigned this morning.

Police suspect the defendants just before 1 a.m. Sept. 3 went to a house in the 100 block of College Street, looking for a man they believed had stolen property from them.

But the home’s residents, Elizabeth Riggle and Adrienne Hurd, were the only ones there, police said

The suspects forced open a side door and stormed their way in, each brandishing a handgun, documents said.

Riggle and Hurd told police they had never seen the two defendants before that night.

Renick demanded the women tell him the whereabouts of the man he and Brandon were looking for, police said.

The defendants allegedly kept their guns pointed at the women. Renick searched the house and made threats to the victims, police said.

Eventually, a friend of the two residents showed up at the house and knocked on the front door. Hurd opened it and told the friend that she was being held at gunpoint.

Brandon apparently panicked and ran out the side door.

Renick, however, remained at the house and demanded the women give them “all their (expletive),” according to a police affidavit.

Police, informed about the alleged crime in process, got to the house. When officers arrived, the women managed to run out the front door, screaming. Neither was hurt.

Renick allegedly ran out the back door, climbed over a fence and got away, police said. But he dropped his loaded 9 mm pistol.

Police said a Linden Street resident later that evening found the gun in her backyard.

During the investigation, police identified Renick and Brandon as suspects.

But even as Butler police were preparing to arrest the defendants, they learned both men were in the county prison on other charges.

State police on Thursday arrested Renick on charges he stole six guns from his uncle’s house in Center Township.

Brandon was arrested Thursday on a bench warrant stemming from an unrelated assault case.

Police interviewed Renick, who admitted his role in the home invasion and implicated Brandon in the same crime, documents said.

Renick, whose bail was set at $110,000, and Brandon, whose bail is $100,000, are both charged with burglary, conspiracy, unlawful restraint, receiving stolen property and simple assault, Renick also is charged with robbery and terroristic threats.