Two Maryland officers were shot while serving warrant to wrong apartment
By Stephen Sorace
Fox News
September 20, 2018
The two Maryland police officers who were shot while executing a drug-related search warrant late Wednesday had entered the wrong apartment, officials said.
Officers from Prince George's County Police entered the home of “a law-abiding” resident after an investigation led officers to incorrectly conclude that the address was that of a suspected drug dealer, police Chief Hank Stawinski said during a news conference Thursday.
"The individual that we are targeting does not live at that address ... a law-abiding, hard-working citizen of Prince George's County and his daughter were home at the point where we were executing that search warrant," Stawinski said.
As of Thursday afternoon, one officer has been released, while the other remained hospitalized for surgery on his face and an arm, Washington station WUSA-TV reported.
The shooting took place Wednesday night as a unit of nine officers served a search warrant at an apartment complex about 20 miles south of the nation's capital. After knocking on the door and getting no response, officers used a device to open it.
The resident, who had fallen asleep and didn’t hear police announce themselves, fired a shotgun as soon as officers opened the door, striking one in the shoulder and the other in a hand, officials said. One officer returned fire, but didn’t hit anyone.
The man immediately surrendered once he realized they were police officers, officials said.
“You got the wrong address. Don’t shoot my daughter,” the father said, according to Stawinski.
The chief apologized for the blunder and said there will not be any criminal charges filed against the resident, Washington news station WTOP-FM reported.
Earlier this month, a police officer in Dallas was charged with manslaughter after entering an apartment she mistook as her own and fatally shooting the resident.
4 comments:
Had a detailed operational plan been implemented this probably would not have happened. On my last unit an operational plan was mandatory on all ops but especially on search warrants.
I once went on a narcotics raid in Colton, California. Before leaving for the raid, we had an operational plan meeting involving all the participants -San Bernardino shriff's officers, state narcotics agents, DEA agents and Colton police - at the San Bernardino Sheriff's headquarters.
The raid was to be conducted at a cottage in Colton where a Mexican suspect was believed to be dealing large amounts of heroin out of. The cottage was one of about 30 or more alike cottages in a low cost housing project that were lined up for several blocks.
We went to the location in four cars. The officers in two cars were to hit the cottage from the front. I was in one of those cars. The other two cars were to go down an alley and hit the cottage from the back side.
My unit hit the correct cottage. The problem was that the other two cars went one block too far and hit the wrong house. They scared some poor Mexican family half to death and it was fortunate that no one was hurt or killed.
Shit can happen in spite of the best plans.
I was under the impression that, when a raid warrant was served, it was SOMEBODY'S specified job to ensure they hit the right house. Is that not the case any more?
That is correct.
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