Funeral home operator tied up during Raleigh break-in

Bruce Lightner, who lives on the second floor of Lightner Funeral & Cremation, at 312 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., said he was in bed shortly after midnight when two armed men broke in and ordered him not to move.

Lightner, 66, said the intruders bound him with duct tape and taped his mouth, and one man held a gun to his head while another ransacked his home.

He said they took cash and a cellphone before fleeing, adding that nothing in the funeral home on the first floor was disturbed.

He wasn't physically injured, and he was able to escape and go to a nearby store to call 911. He told police that one man wore a hooded sweatshirt and the other had a red and black bandana over his face.

Lightener is the son of former Clarence Lightner who in 1973 became the city's first black mayor.

Bruce Lightner founded and serves as chairman of the Martin Luther King Celebration Committee. His family has owned Lightner Funeral Home for more than a century.