Posted on 01/15/2011 4:20:27 PM PST by microgood
SPRING VALLEY, N.Y. (WPIX) It was a classic case of mistaken identity for a Spring Valley family Thursday when federal agents and police raided their home and reportedly held their teenage daughter at gunpoint.
The father, David McKay, said police dragged his wife, brother-in-law and daughter out of bed, separated him from his family and even threatened to shoot their dog, according to a report in The Journal News.
The federal Drug Enforcement Administration had an arrest warrant for a man they believed lived in the Spring Valley family's house, but it turned out he lived a couple houses away.
"You go barging into someone's home with guns and pull them out of their bed, you better make sure you have all your i's ... dotted and your t's crossed," McKay told The Journal News.
The raid was part of drug trafficking investigation that involved over 200 federal and local officers and has so far led to the arrest of 26 people across New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, officials said. The DEA believes they are responsible for distributing more than 1,000 kilograms of marijuana since 2006.
"We sincerely regret that while attempting to execute an arrest warrant for a member of this drug trafficking organization, the innocent McKay family was inadvertently affected by this enforcement operation," Special Agent in Charge John Gilbride said in a statement issued to PIX 11 News.
The DEA did finally arrest the correct person, who, along with the others arrested, was arraigned in White Plains on Wednesday.
McKay's family, meanwhile, has been traumatized from the incident. His daughter suffered from an asthma attack during the raid and was taken to Nyack Hospital.
As an ex-lawyer, let me tell you ABSOLUTELY. They have a line of lawyers waiting to help them do just that.
He had a single-thickness wooden door that could be shot through. So, hardly. Others might or will try to have fortresses, though.
Sista, I’m a sista!!! =)
Since it is a WAR on Drugs, shouldn't this little gem apply?
< /SARC>
get a pistol in 762x25. I tested them, 45, 38, 357 and 9mm on an old 80’s vintage flak vest. The only ones that went through were the 762x25’s. Not sure what they would do on a more modern system of soft body armor.
That little 13 year old girl will not get over this quickly, if ever. Stupid bastards, no excuses.
Obscurity doesn’t protect you when the SWAT thugs are destined to show up at the wrong address. Which they tend to do in an epidemic of isolated incidents.
Are people going to have to start building fortress houses to prevent or at least slow entry by the Special Weapons and Thuggery teams?
Crossbars and wedgepoles are becoming more common.
Replacing all eexterior doors with steel doors with steel frames and high and low dead bolts.
“Since it is a WAR on Drugs, shouldn’t this little gem apply?”
Since the Congress no longer declares war, just the current ‘Puppet in Chief’, no.
I don’t know why the press lets these cops off the hook by using the word “mistakenly” when it is pretty clear that they did intentionally bust into this particular house and they did intentionally threaten and harass these particular people.
Oops?
Law enforcement is nothing but publicly financed street gangs.
It's nice to know that demagoguery is alive and well.
Usually it's the purvey of Lefties, but I guess you believe in equal opportunity.
Breaking and entering, assault, kidnapping, threatening with deadly weapons, trespassing.
It's a long list of felonies...
...that the police committed.
I fixed that. If the result of kicking the wrong door down resulted in a couple of decades looking at the criminal justice system from the inside for every cop involved, every address subject to an unconstitutional no knock raid would be triple checked by every cop involved, relieving us of that part of these nightmares, at least.
Poor little thing. I hope she recovers soon.
Sue them..
Well, at least you presumably can't buy any weed in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania now.
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