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Family of Toddler Injured by SWAT 'Grenade' Faces $1M in Medical Bills
ABC News Via Yahoo! ^ | 12/18/14 | ALISON LYNN and MATT GUTMAN

Posted on 12/18/2014 11:03:27 PM PST by Slings and Arrows

Alecia and Bounkham Phonesavanh never imagined their family would be at the center of a controversy over the militarization of police. But that’s exactly where they found themselves when their toddler was seriously injured by a SWAT team, also leaving them with a $1 million medical bill they have no hope of paying.

“They messed up,” Alecia Phonesavanh told ABC News' "20/20." “They had a faulty search warrant. They raided the wrong house.”

In the spring of 2014, the Phonesavanh’s home in Janesville, Wisconsin, was destroyed by fire. Homeless with four young children, they packed one of their last remaining possessions – their minivan – and drove 850 miles to the home of Bounkham’s sister in Cornelia, Georgia.

The family crowded into a former garage converted into a bedroom: parents Bounkham and Alecia, 7-year-old Emma, 5-year-old Mali, 3-year-old Charlie and 18-month-old Bounkham Jr., known as “Bou Bou.” It was a tight squeeze but only temporary. After two months the family had found a new house in Wisconsin and was planning to return home.

At approximately 2 a.m. May 28, the family awakened to a blinding flash and loud explosion in their bedroom. A Special Response Team (aka SWAT team) from the Habersham County Sheriff's Office burst unannounced into the bedroom where they were sleeping. According to police reports, Habersham Deputy Charles Long threw a “flash-bang” grenade – a diversionary device used by police and military – into the room. It landed in Bou Bou’s pack-and-play.

“Bou Bou started screaming,” recalls Alecia Phonesavanh. “I immediately went to grab him.”

But Alecia says Habersham Deputy Jason Stribling picked up the child before she could reach him. “I kept telling him, ‘Just give me my son. He's scared. He needs me. The officer wouldn't. And then he walked out of the room...

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Extended News; Government; US: Georgia; US: Wisconsin
KEYWORDS: agitprop; choomgang; copbashersonfr; cornelia; donutwatch; georgia; janesville; libertarians; medicalmarijuana; methlab; wisconsin; wod
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To: Slings and Arrows
The State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) – now known more simply as the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) – is a program administered by the United States Department of Health and Human Services that provides matching funds to states for health insurance to families with children. The program was designed to cover uninsured children in families with incomes that are modest but too high to qualify for Medicaid.

If the family earns too much for Medicaid, why wouldn't SCHIP? (And if not, where did all the money form the SCHIP tax go?)

41 posted on 12/19/2014 3:44:33 AM PST by Sooth2222 ("Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of congress. But I repeat myself." M.Twain)
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To: rdcbn; AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Berosus; bigheadfred; Bockscar; cardinal4; ColdOne; ...

Thanks rdcbn. Meth-cookers who didn’t give a damn about their own child? Not exactly like finding a four leafed clover.


42 posted on 12/19/2014 3:47:34 AM PST by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/ _____________________ Celebrate the Polls, Ignore the Trolls)
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To: Jonty30
We let em get away with murder at Waco.

This police state brutality should have ended there! Our so called "representatives" failed to hold any one accountable for the murder by fire of almost 80 US Citizens that day!


The popo need to be more creative, and stop relying on grunt force tactics.

43 posted on 12/19/2014 4:02:32 AM PST by rawcatslyentist (Jeremiah 50:32 "The arrogant one will stumble and fall ; / ?)
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To: rdcbn
"When the SWAT team hit the home's front door with a battering ram, it resisted as if something was up against it, the sheriff said, so one of the officers threw the flash-bang grenade inside the residence."

Must have been one of those popular steel, 2-ton cribs to be such an effective barricade. I'm not sure how a flash-bang would make an inanimate object move though, so this solution to a blocked door seems questionable.

44 posted on 12/19/2014 4:21:32 AM PST by Flag_This (You can't spell "treason" without the "O".)
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To: Jonty30
I wouldn’t be doing it in response to a raid, but more Charles Bronson type of vengeance.

The other way (where they stand) would merely be suicide - going Bronson on them would give you more time before being executed. I hear you.

45 posted on 12/19/2014 4:26:48 AM PST by trebb (Where in the the hell has my country gone?)
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To: rdcbn

I would be very skeptical of those “facts.”


46 posted on 12/19/2014 4:32:48 AM PST by OpusatFR (I did make that. No one else did the work.)
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To: Slings and Arrows

Coming to a police force near you if it is not already there. And we are now in the midst of a federalization of local police forces. These things will be controlled from Washington and will acquire a political nature that is less alarming to the armed citizenry by doing it with “local” police forces than with federal teams.


47 posted on 12/19/2014 4:46:20 AM PST by arthurus (Coming to a p)
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To: rdcbn
Note, the babies family had moved into this house after they allegedly burned their own house down cooking meth.

What is your source for that statement?

48 posted on 12/19/2014 4:50:06 AM PST by Ken H
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To: OpusatFR

I don’t necessarily question the facts, but the facts suggest that the raid was overkill.

A home that is set up as a drug distribution point, in suburbia, is set up to blend in. There are not going to be guards standing at the doors with AK-47s at all hours of the day. They will also keep basically enough stash and money to get through the day. There are not going to be millions of dollars on site or tens of kilos of anything. The last thing they want is a raid by police or a rival network.

The home is a low risk situation for the police and they kkow this.


49 posted on 12/19/2014 5:04:15 AM PST by Jonty30 (What Islam and secularism have in common is that they are both death cults)
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To: Gaffer
Who alleges the family burned down their house cooking meth?

It's the first I've heard of it, too. They don't seem the type =>

In Wisconsin, Alecia worked as a full-time nurse caring for elderly and disabled people. She worked 16-hour days, sometimes seven days a week to support the family.

Bounkham stayed at home and cared for the couple’s three daughters — ages 3, 5, and 7 — baby Bou Bou, and Alecia’s mentally disabled brother.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mikehayes/how-a-meth-deal-and-a-botched-raid-left-a-baby-maimed

50 posted on 12/19/2014 5:06:42 AM PST by Ken H
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To: BykrBayb

If that were my kid I wouldn’t be calling for it. It would already have happened.


51 posted on 12/19/2014 5:09:30 AM PST by Lurker (Violence is rarely the answer. But when it is it is the only answer.)
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To: Jonty30

They certainly are responsible for using a flashbang in a manner that was unsafe. Flashbangs are not toys, they are weapons. If they had burned a suspect, it would still be wrong.

All these accusations against the family, including this idiotic claim they used their child as a door stop, smell of CYA, made up excuses, and demonizing the victims without evidence.


52 posted on 12/19/2014 5:12:30 AM PST by LevinFan
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To: Slings and Arrows

53 posted on 12/19/2014 5:18:53 AM PST by Travis McGee (www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
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To: Gaffer; rdcbn
Were they, was anyone arrested on scene?

I wondered the same. From the snippet provided by rdcbn in post 10--it appears that the arrests were made at another residence, not the home raided.

The family crowded into a former garage converted into a bedroom: parents Bounkham and Alecia, 7-year-old Emma, 5-year-old Mali, 3-year-old Charlie and 18-month-old Bounkham Jr., known as “Bou Bou.”

At approximately 2 a.m. May 28, the family awakened to a blinding flash and loud explosion in their bedroom. A Special Response Team (aka SWAT team) from the Habersham County Sheriff's Office burst unannounced into the bedroom where they were sleeping.

If the family had such disregard for their child, to use him as a door block...why would they hide the children when drug deals went down? Why would they still have custody of this child and the other children? If the parents are such hard-core, dope dealing, meth cookers-- they certainly should have the children removed.

I don't know enough of the facts to determine much but what is known to us doesn't look good for the police. No matter the story, the child was innocent and this is a horrid tragedy! If was was a converted garage to bedroom, it seems likely a child wasn't used to block the door--the child was there because of space etc. Plus, a playpen isn't much of a door block.

How did the parents have time to block the door with the child, if first the police feel resistance (playpen resistance--yeah)and then use a flashbang? Did they go for the front door first? Was that door blocked, too?

54 posted on 12/19/2014 5:22:50 AM PST by Irenic (The pencil sharpener and Elmer's glue is put away-- we've lost the red wheelbarrow)
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To: rdcbn

Post some sources for your allegations.


55 posted on 12/19/2014 5:39:29 AM PST by Abby4116
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To: null and void

Ping.


56 posted on 12/19/2014 5:43:44 AM PST by TADSLOS (The Event Horizon has come and gone. Buckle up and hang on.)
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To: Slings and Arrows
Who is responsible for Bou Bou Phonesavanh’s injuries may still be a question for the courts to decide.

Gee. How hard can this be to figure out? The incompetent SWAT team raids the wrong address, drops a grenade in the baby's crib, and attempts to cover up the injuries to the child.

Minimally, when a SWAT team raid the wrong address it should result in automatic termination from the police force.

57 posted on 12/19/2014 5:44:42 AM PST by Flick Lives ("I can't believe it's not Fascism!")
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To: rdcbn
The babies crib was allegedly being used by the occupants to block and jam a door in the house to prevent drug and money motivated home invaders from breaking in to steal their stash and cash.

Yes. Everyone knows that portable baby cribs make better door barriers than a nailed 2x4. *Sheesh*. This sounds like a concocted story by the cops to cover their incompetence.

Did you look at the picture of the couple in the story? Do they even look remotely like a couple of meth heads?

58 posted on 12/19/2014 5:50:11 AM PST by Flick Lives ("I can't believe it's not Fascism!")
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To: Lurker; roadcat

It’s a fine line between what Lurker said in post 51, and what roadcat said in post 21. Post 51 gave a hypothetical response to a hypothetical situation. Post 21 was worded in such a way as to actually call for at least two people to be assassinated. That’s why I asked for clarification. I’m glad that was not the intent

I think most of us have posted things that didn’t come across they way we intended. A n00b would have drawn some seriously negative attention for that. Old-timers should have the opportunity to clear it up. That’s why I did not notify a moderator. Maybe I should have. Looks like maybe some did, as the post is gone.

Antways, I’m glad it was just a misunderstanding. No harm, no foul. :~}


59 posted on 12/19/2014 6:46:18 AM PST by BykrBayb (Where there is life, there is hope. - Terri Schiavo ~ Þ)
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To: nonliberal
“It shouldn’t come from Habersham County. All settlements should be paid from the police pension fund.”

Agreed, but there would have to be a change in the law. Seems as though cops have “immunity from prosecution” even when there is a clear violation of the law and their oath to serve. Just read an article by a cop saying with all this “interference” ( you know body cameras,etc.) that the public can expect to see them really cut back on getting into “hazardous” situations. Evidently they don't like not having carte blanche to do whatever they want without any oversight. Personally, I think a more effective culture would be to allow people to be armed. Right now, most people are simply sitting ducks for criminals because they know that there is no available deterrence for the vast majority.

60 posted on 12/19/2014 10:27:10 AM PST by vette6387
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