Posted on 11/21/2007 7:28:37 AM PST by TSgt
LAWRENCEBURG, Ind. -- A SWAT team raids the wrong home in Lawrenceburg, Ind., now the homeowner wants some answers.
Police said they were led to the Village Apartments on the trail of fugitive Sean Deaton.
Convinced he was inside apartment 407G, the Lawrenceburg SWAT unit surrounded the building.
"It looked like they were ready to go to war," one neighbor said. "Some of the ones out here had AR15's and shotguns."
Neighbors said police spent hours, ordering Deaton to surrender. But when that didn't work, they responded with tear gas and forced entry.
"It looked like my apartment was on fire. The smoke was just blowing out of my windows," Kayla Irwin, the tenant of 407G said.
Irwin, a single mother of two, said she is unable to live in her apartment and didn’t even know the man police were searching for.
Now, she said, she has been left with the mess and no apology.
"It's all covered with poison. I don't know where to start over with two kids," said Irwin. "How do you start with replacing the items that your kids have had since the day they were born?"
She said one of her pet guinea pigs was also killed during the incident.
Neighbors said the police action was simply overkill.
"Overpowered. In my opinion it looked like they were enjoying what they were doing. They did not need to do all this," Emanuel Brightwell, an Iraq veteran and neighbor said.
Irwin said she appealed to the police, but hasn’t gotten anywhere.
"They basically just said, sorry for the inconvenience. Go ahead and clean it up. Clean up our mess," Irwin said.
She said she's had to borrow everything from family in the week since the incident. She also said she can't stay in the apartment because of the acrid gas residue.
An assistant chief and another officer were at the Village Apartments talking to Irwin within 30 minutes of Target 5 asking them about the incident, telling her that they would try to get some money so she could clean her clothes and furnishing on her own.
"This is the first time this has happened. I'm surprised the incident has not been remedied. We will take care of it the best we can," the assistant chief said.
Until the incident is remedied, the manager of the apartment complex said he has put Irwin, her kids and her pets in another apartment.
“It looked like they were ready to go to war,” one neighbor said. “Some of the ones out here had AR15’s and shotguns.”
Obviously the police department messed up here big time and needs to make amends. But I found the above quote hilarious...what did they think SWAT would be using to go after a potentially dangerous criminal? A BB gun?
When they kill the dog, they say "The deputy felt his life was in danger". But now they're killing guinea pigs!
What a POS chief, you could start by firing your self right after you fire a bunch of those jack booted thugs. Somebody has got to put a stop to this crap.
The last I heard a cops job was to effect an arrest so a judge and jury could handle the matter. Not run around and play combat platoon.
You know this is just practice for larger scale civil unrest.
“Not run around and play combat platoon.”
Easy for someone to say who doesn’t put their life on the line bringing in the bad guys.
The guys brother told the cops the garage is full of ammo he was stockpiling it and he refused to throw away newspapers for years......so the wise Johnson county Indiana swat tean shot flash grenades and tear gas into the house as they stormed it.
Luckily they only burnt that house down while the ammo cooked off and the only real injury ( aside from the suicide) was one deputy who ran so fast through the front door that he didn't stop until he ran through the patio door in the back at which time he discharged his weapon into his heel.
It could have been alot worse .
Easy for someone to say who doesn’t put their life on the line bringing in the bad guys.
One riot one RANGER. lol.
>”This is the first time this has happened. I’m surprised the incident has not been remedied. We will take care of it the best we can,” the assistant chief said.
The assistant chief is a pure idiot. It happens all the time.
Botched Paramilitary Police Raids
http://www.cato.org/raidmap/
On the other hand they [the police dept.] is responsible for repairing the damages that they have caused in this act. They should have had better intel before they raided that home! And the lady should sue the PD for the actions that did!
Obviously, you’ve never been charged by an enraged guinea pig protecting its territory.
.."now can you spell L a w y e r ?
Every police department thinks they need a SWAT team. Then they have to justify their existance by going out and playing Rambo.
Wow, that story is full of idiots.
For All - what I want to know is, what would happen if SWAT gets the wrong home, starts searching your place, and finds a 1911 and 870?
Disagree. In some cases you are correct but the government can even demonize an old lady.
Oh I agree with you on that, but that is why we have the courts for, NOW she should SUE THE CITY FOR ALL IT’S WORTH, and then move to a better home after she gets her money! The city will settle this for large amount of $ just to make it go away, as long as she make a large enough stink about it!
The city should be held liable for the damages to the apartment and the furnishings. While the use of force may well have been called for, the tenant is not charged with any crimes in connection with the fugitive. This is not unlike compensating a property owner for taking his real estate under eminent domain for purposes of public works or park and conservation land.
Something odd here. Neighbors said that police spent hours trying to get the guy to come out.
Seems to me the lady could have just opened her door and said, “He is not here, I don’t know him, take a look.”
Then the police could have gone to Starbucks.
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