Two West Baltimore men were charged yesterday with first-degree murder in the killing of a 33-year-old Delaware man who dashed inside one of the suspect's homes to escape people chasing him, police said.

Charles E. Dodd, 63, and Robert L. Harris Jr., 26, were arrested Wednesday in the death of Sean A. Day, who was beaten and stabbed Tuesday, according to court records and investigators.

Police described a frenzied scene as Day ran toward a rowhouse in the 2000 block of McHenry St., trailed by four men. Day then pushed aside Ragina Harris, one of the rowhouse's residents, and burst through the front door, locking it behind him, said Homicide Detective Irvin Bradley.

Ragina Harris asked her live-in boyfriend, Dodd, and son, Harris, to root out Day, and they entered the home using keys, Bradley said.

The two men are accused of hunting down Day, beating him and stabbing him to death in a running fight that stretched from the kitchen to basement, Bradley said. Day was taken outside and left in a neighboring alley, where he was found dead by police officers a few minutes later.

When police arrived, witnesses told detectives that the two men had beaten Day and tossed him out of the house. Although the men apparently tried to clean the house, forensic tests found significant amounts of blood, the investigator said.

Day was on parole for theft in Delaware and had been occasionally staying in the 4000 block of Oswego Court in Northwest Baltimore.

Dodd and Robert L. Harris Jr., who lives in the 200 block of S. Payson St., were being held without bail at the city jail.

The detective said he did not know why the victim was running from the four men and urged anyone with information to call him at 410-396-2100. Day is Baltimore's 126th homicide victim of the year.