What happens when the Police raid the wrong house?

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HORN LAKE, Miss. - An unidentified elderly Horn Lake couple were hospitalized Thursday after police burst into their home thinking it housed a methamphetamine laboratory.

The incident occurred Wednesday about 4 a.m., said police Capt. Shannon Beshears. Beshears said it was the right address but the wrong house.

I've always wondered what would happen if I were awakened from a sound sleep with the sounds of breaking glass and yelling. Home Invasion or Police Raid?

RJ
 
Jaxon said:
I've always wondered what would happen if I were awakened from a sound sleep with the sounds of breaking glass and yelling. Home Invasion or Police Raid?

RJ

Either way you have a huge problem. Can you react to a home invasion at 4:00am in a manner guaranteed to protect your life? How long do you wait to see if they are criminals or police who have made a mistake? Suppose you decide wrong and act accordingly?

I do not know which would be worse, not reacting to home invaders or trying to take on a police entry team. Either way could leave you dead.
 
Jaxon said:
I've always wondered what would happen if I were awakened from a sound sleep with the sounds of breaking glass and yelling. Home Invasion or Police Raid?

RJ

+1 That's got bad news written all over it... [hmmm]
 
FPrice said:
<SNIP> Can you react to a home invasion at 4:00am in a manner guaranteed to protect your life?
Yes, I believe so, at least initially. A protracted firefight would get interesting.

FPrice said:
How long do you wait to see if they are criminals or police who have made a mistake?
Before I start the dance? I'd probably wait until my wife was safe and then challenge the intruders - verbally first (I hope). [wink]

FPrice said:
Suppose you decide wrong and act accordingly?
That's the question, isn't it. If you survived, would it be jail time? Acquited?

FPrice said:
I do not know which would be worse, not reacting to home invaders or trying to take on a police entry team.
I'd rather take on the home invaders than a heavily armed TAC Team. [smile]

RJ
 
I've seen some houses like that where "perhaps" one was 47 Main St and the other directly behind it was 47A Main St.

We have a single family house on our street that has been illegally setup as a "rooming house" with a full apt in the cellar for >20 years. The house owner was busted for cocaine distribution (upstairs) . . . but I don't know if any of the downstairs "roomies" were illegally involved. The whole house got tossed in the raid (late Sat. morning) regardless (confirmed to me by the DA). It only has 1 address (but two mailboxes on the door).

If it is police, rightly or wrongly and they spot a weapon, you are almost 100% certain to end up dead! That is the real problem with these events where it goes wrong. Thus, prosecution for defending yourself will be the least of your problems . . . but in the very unlikely event you survive you can count on being charged and you will have to "work your way out of it" in court!
 
LenS said:
I've seen some houses like that where "perhaps" one was 47 Main St and the other directly behind it was 47A Main St.

In this event, sounds like the police had insufficient intell about which house the buy had been made, and then didn't ask when confronted with a questionable event.

RJ
 
I've also seen more than a few houses with no visible street numbers on them! Very aggravating to LE and any public safety (EMS, fire) as well as folks like me (Constable). Luckily I'm never raiding a place!
 
LenS said:
I've also seen more than a few houses with no visible street numbers on them! Very aggravating to LE and any public safety (EMS, fire) as well as folks like me (Constable). Luckily I'm never raiding a place!

Yes, a bane to our existence. But I think a raiding party would have been in contact with the advance guys to find the right place. [thinking]

RJ
 
Jaxon said:
In this event, sounds like the police had insufficient intell about which house the buy had been made, and then didn't ask when confronted with a questionable event.

RJ
BINGO! They didn't do their homework.
 
Wasn't there a movie about this? Maybe with Will Smith? They killed the wrong black guy, and the rest of the movie was about...??
 
The old couple were "hospitalized".
Simply disgusting.
Nobody should be in fear of the police. What do you think this old couples reaction will be for now on when dealing with LEO's? How about members of their family??
This war on drugs is just too expensive if you ask me.
 
Jaxon said:
In this event, sounds like the police had insufficient intell about which house the buy had been made, and then didn't ask when confronted with a questionable event.

RJ

That can be a problem. First, informants often aren't all that reliable. Second, sometimes they can be fed bad information to feed the cops by the bad guys to see if the informant is in fact an informant. The cops should verify the information from another source, but that's not always possible.

There's a guy on death row, I think in MS, because he shot a cop during a raid of the "wrong house". At least that's what his defenders say. I think his name is Corey Maye, if you want to Google it.

Gary
 
"There's a guy on death row, I think in MS, because he shot a cop during a raid of the "wrong house.---garys"

What I thought I read at "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cory_Maye" was that the officers obtained search warrents for both sides of a duplex. I don't know this to be true or not as I haven't spent any more time on this then it took to google.


Respectfully,

jkelly
 
Don't believe any/every thing you read on any Wiki. It's all unvetted and unedited. There is a quite a bit on this guy if you Google his name.

It's a tough situation for everyone when this happens. Several years ago the Boston PD had a similar incident and one of the residents, who was an elderly minister, died.

Gary
 
Rev. Acelyne Williams was the innocent victim.

After dragging their heels for a lot of years (probably hoping his widow would die of old age first), Mumbles' goons settled for a few million in his wrongful death suit. I think that it took ~10 years to settle.

I wouldn't bet that she's seen any/all of that money however! The City doesn't usually pay its debts or if it does, it certainly doesn't do it very rapidly.
 
Actually, the story on Williams is a bit more complicated.

First, you have to understand that, while in the U.S. we refer to the ground level as the "first floor" or "first story," and the one above it as the "second floor" or "second story," and so forth in many parts of the world, particularly those with a French heritage, the ground level is referred to as the ground level and the numbering of floors starts with what we call the second floor. The second floor would be the "premier etage," the third floor is the "deuxieme etage," and so forth.

The CI in the Williams case was a Caribbean from Haiti, as I recall. He spoke English poorly, and he referred to the third floor of the building, which was in fact a drug house, as the "deuxieme etage." This was mistranslated by someone at BPD as the "second floor," and the warrant was issued for the second floor.

Williams, a complete innocent, lived on the second floor.

The problem is, of course, that the response of a complete innocent to a sudden invasion of his home by armed men is just about the same as that of druggies: they tend to be defensive and non-compliant with shouted demands to get on the floor.

The solution is for the police to know their neighborhoods and for tactical squads to involve the local beat cops in their operations.
 
Garys said:
That can be a problem. First, informants often aren't all that reliable. Second, sometimes they can be fed bad information to feed the cops by the bad guys to see if the informant is in fact an informant. The cops should verify the information from another source, but that's not always possible. <SNIP>Gary

Use to be, the cops had to make the actual buy prior to the raid. That way, the intell was immediate and fresh. CI buys are good for a start, but not proceeding the door-kick.

RJ
 
RKG,

Thanks for that part of the story. I knew that the warrant was cut for the wrong apartment, but never heard this side of the story.

Regrettably, it makes sense . . . but if BPD used officers who really were proficient in the foreign languages and perhaps of ethnic heritage themselves, they should have smoked out this as a potential problem with any CI providing intel.
 
LenS said:
RKG,

Thanks for that part of the story. I knew that the warrant was cut for the wrong apartment, but never heard this side of the story.

Regrettably, it makes sense . . . but if BPD used officers who really were proficient in the foreign languages and perhaps of ethnic heritage themselves, they should have smoked out this as a potential problem with any CI providing intel.

And had they followed regular procedures, they would have known the correct location.

RJ
 
It is hard to fault the police on this one: the dealer was a dude they had been after for some time, who had a practice of setting up and then dismantling "retail establishments" in a couple of days. The CI was entirely reliable (if a bit English challenged) and his information was factually correct, but the police had to move fast if they were to move at all. Don't hold me to the specifics, but as I recall the data was acquired something like 1000 or 1100, and after assembling the required paperwork and personnel, the entry was made at something like 1400.

An interesting sidelight: some may recall a photo of the front of the building, taken just after the raid with a bunch of the entry team standing out front. The building had a distinctive bright red front door. That photo was taken by a high school kid who was working as a stringer for one of the newspapers. The exercise was conducted with high security and absolute radio silence, and the photographer just happened upon the assembly at the staging area, recognized it for what it was, and tagged along and got the shot. Needless to say, it was an exclusive, and by the end of the week, he had sold it nationally and several times over. The proceeds enabled him to go to college, and he is was until recently a senior news producer for one of the Boston TV stations.
 
Since the differences in the ways building levels are numbered in different languages (and even between different countries with the same language), it would seem an obvious point requiring clarification whenever an informant isn't native born. Hardly rocket surgery.

(By the way, loud noises during the night still tend to get a very quick reaction from me, even 40 years later. The question would be whether after the initial entry, the team could get through the deadbolted, solid core door upstairs before the 911 dispatcher cleared things up. Also, any 911 calls I make in this sort of situation tend to be at a volume level that would be easily audible to anybody in the house, if not the next door neighbors. Pray I never get to find out if it would be enough, because somebody could very easily end up dead regardless.)

Ken
 
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