Posted on 06/22/2012 10:05:51 PM PDT by Altariel
ochester police and federal agents made a mistake in Charlotte this week that has one woman baffled and frightened. She wants to know how they could mistake her house for one they were supposed to raid in a drug bust.
“I was sitting in my living room texting on my phone and I heard somebody come in my back door. I didn't realize at the time what they were saying, but ultimately they were yelling out A-T-F, A-T-F.”
Nancy Dominicos says what happened next at her home on Tiernan Street Wednesday night is almost unbelievable.
“I thought it was a family member pulling a joke on me. And all of the sudden I looked up and they were in my dinning room pointing a loaded gun at me telling me they had a federal warrant to search my premises.”
Dominicos says she kept telling the three ATF agents this wasn't right. They told her they were searching for narcotics and asked if anyone else was home. She said her adult son was upstairs and that's when this story almost turned tragic.
“My son had heard me arguing with this man and it was not a voice he'd recognize. My son is a hunter, he put a bullet in the chamber of his gun. They heard that, they yelled down long gun, at that point there he told another ATF agent that was with me, handcuff her and take her out,” Dominicos said.
Thankfully Dominicos' son recognized it was law enforcement and put the gun down right away. Dominicos says the handcuffs caused bruises and as she was going outside with an ATF agent she heard him say they had the wrong house. The ATF and Rochester police executed a number of search warrants Wednesday night. Police sent us a statement, saying they entered the home through an unlocked side door and quote:
"Upon encountering an elderly resident, the team realized that they were at the wrong location at that time and left the premises."
Officers then searched the correct house down the street.
Dominicos says the whole event plays over and over in her mind,
“I'm still terrified. It's almost like a P.T.S.D. experience, you keep hearing things. You think oh my God I hear a door slam, I hear someone pulling into my driveway. I see a light it's like oh my God are they back?”
"How could they make that mistake, how could they make that mistake?”
BS, they handcuffed her. They did not leave the premises when they encountered her.
I want to know why the Rochester police were in Charlotte.
It is vital that we understand that the truly bad cops do use as precedent, any such "mistake" that is made with impunity. If it can happen as a "mistake" with enough regularity, then the tactic of "wrong-house" searches will be carried out deliberately and just called "mistakes" to excuse them, and get away with them.
This will be the trend if agents and their bosses are protected from prosecution and law suits.
Most of my colleagues thought the same way and yet we are all condemned my mistakes like this.I don't think ArrogantBustard wasn't condeming all LEO's as "bad", just the one's who *are* "bad" and/or incompetent. These guys demonstrated their incompetence by not correctly identifying the location for the warrant. After all, some Barney Fife SWORE AN OATH OR AFFIRMATION BEFORE A JUDGE regarding the *EXACT* location to be searched in order to get the warrant issued. There is no excuse for mistaking the location. Period. The location was either well & clearly known by Barney or Barney lied to the judge. It's one or the other.
Barney was responsible for clearly identifying the location to everyone involved. If it was a location that could be easily confused, then Barney was solely responsible for removing any & all confusion before the warrant was executed or insuring terminally confused/idiot officers were excluded from the team. You should know this. "Oops, sorry" is not enough to absolve for this particular mistake. It is inexcusable.
Mere civil liability is insufficient as far as I am concerned. If you don't want to also hold LEO's criminally liable for their Mis/Mal/Non-feasance in the official performance of their duties (which I personally have no objection to), then terminate their employment with prejudice against any future employment as an enforcer of laws or regulations. These sort of mistakes must not be tolerated at all.
If they can't accept that responsibility as a local, county, state or federal LEO, then they need to look for another line of work.
Opinions may vary.
I respect your professionalism, yet these “mistakes” are happening more and more frequently.
Perhaps, if the good LEO’s pushed for checks and reforms to prevent these “mistakes” , they would stop occurring.
I don’t see any real shock from the LE community at the deaths and trauma these no-knock raids and “mistakes” cause.
In Indiana it is lawful to shoot cops entering your house unlawfully.
It’ll be interesting to see if the instances of “wrong address”/”mistaken” raids drops as a result.
It’s a good law, but requires the aggrieved party to shoot it out with the dirty cops.
The idea of any agency conducting a search first posting a 5 million dollar bond seems like a good solution.
Maybe an effort to get this kind of legislation passed in the states and federal level is called for.
“What is the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives doing on a drug raid?”
Have you seen the arsenal of weapons that some of these thugs possess? Most often they have better weapons than the police.
Salve
“Mistake” is one thing, attacking someone’s home, is not “Mistake” is violations of their rights and freedom.
I know those raids well, 3, 4 o’clock in the mornings, one word against system, your family will disappear. This is different. American citizens we are talking about, who are having enough of this.
And I agree with many here friends that abuse of this power is getting more and more dangerous, without even apology of any kind.
Under supervisions of law, they decided to attack innocent victims, and they should be persecuted and remove from a force. I think American people have right to be highly upset over this, and be alert of abuse of power.
If they will shoot them of self defense, I feel powers will make their life a living hell, if not shoot them.
This is not “Mistake” this is abusing power.
Merci.
mistake?
Buffoons in action. You got GOS, maps, snitches, etc,, and ya still can’t hit the right address... no offense intended to all those LEOs who are decent and respectful.
GOS=GPS
You’re right, and you’re not alone here.
wrong house ping
As a former police officer try to get your head around this scenario. 3-4 uniformed officers (like you used to be) do the job they are hired for by knocking on the door and telling the resident they have a search warrant. Thats the way it was always done until recently. So if they get the wrong address it gets resolved in a calm rational way.
Now the SWAT team has to go out and break down doors and shoot all the dogs for every freakin warrant that gets issued. Its ridiculous!!!! SWAT is supposed to be used in the event of a crazed killer holding hostages or some other extreme event not to serve search warrants and arrest warrants.
If you wanted to have been loved, you should have become a firefighter instead. Nobody in America thinks firemen are dicks.
Anyway, he lifted the gal off her unmovable horse and put her on his horse...(a horse knows whos boss when you get on their back). He got on the public stable horse and gave him a good kick. The horse started bucking but couldn't get dad off his back, he then settled down and with dad on him walked back to the stable...dads horse followed. The girl was scared and if dad hadn't been going back to the barn, no telling what would have happened to the girl and the horse she rented......lots of good stuff go on with cops every day that we never hear about, but the scum cops we hear about all the time.....
A government can go in anyone’s home, claim “anonymous tip”, shoot them, and drop a 1 lb package. No victim or witnesses required. It's guilt by magical object.
BATSH!T comes to mind.
Now the SWAT team has to go out and break down doors and shoot all the dogs for every freakin warrant that gets issued. Its ridiculous!!!! SWAT is supposed to be used in the event of a crazed killer holding hostages or some other extreme event not to serve search warrants and arrest warrants.
Exactly and Law Enforcement around the nation needs to be demilitarized and" Their Special Tools" kept locked up except for a clear and clearly specified dangers to the public. All raids ALL Traffic Stops should be done in marked patrol cars with a visible light bar and agency ID on the door. The officer whether on a traffic stop or a raid should be in an expected recognizable patrolmans uniform. He sould not look like he just came from a military base.
Give me an hour and I can be a cop in an unmarked car with lights in the grill and dashboard. Give me 45 seconds in a novelty store and I also can have a shirt that has ATF, FBI, SWAT, on it etc. Military garb and military tactics and tools used by police is way out of hand. No Knock Raids except in a known Hostage Situation should never be allowed anywhere.
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