This is the terrifying moment armed cops raid the wrong home, leaving a baby with special needs already on a ventilator injured from flash-bang devices.
The mayor of Elyria, Ohio, Kevin A. Brubaker has ordered an investigation after Courtney Price, 25, alleged that the officers who raided her property last Wednesday had the wrong address and deployed flash-bang devices that left her child hospitalized.
The incident took place around 2.15pm when a swarm of officers from the Police Special Response Team busted into the home on Parmely Avenue in Elyria. The raid was captured on a ring camera.
The body cam footage shows the police hammering on the door before battering it and smashing a window and firing flash-bang devices.
In an audio clip shared Tuesday as a doorbell camera captures officers during the raid, someone can be heard saying, ‘It’s the wrong house.’ It is unclear who made the remark.
Police said Friday that they had conducted a search warrant at the right address and said that the child did not ‘sustain any apparent, visible injuries’.
The incident took place around 2.15pm last Wednesday when a swarm of officers from the Police Special Response Team busted into the home on Parmely Avenue in Elyria. The raid was captured on a ring camera
Officers outside the property on Parmely Avenue in Elyria. The mayor of Elyria, Ohio , Kevin A. Brubaker has ordered an investigation after Courtney Price, 25, alleged that the officers who raided her property last Wednesday had the wrong address and deployed flash-bang devices that left her child hospitalized
Waylon May, 17 months, was injured in the raid when Elyira Police Special Response Team raided the home
Reida Jennings’ niece, Courtney Price, and her 17-month-old son, Waylon May, were visiting from Kentucky and staying at her home. The toddler was awaiting open heart surgery that is scheduled for next month.
During the bust, Price said the officers threw two flash bangs through the window. The grenades hit near her son, who was sitting in a swing near the window, and covered him in glass and smoke.
The terrified mother told Fox8 News that guns were pointed at her and she feared she’d be shot if she ran to her child. ‘One second everything was normal, 15 seconds later our world was flipped upside down,’ she recalled.
Authorities in the town about 20 miles from Cleveland said the raid was part of an investigation – one reportedly looking for a teen on weapon charges. The police claimed that the devices, ‘diversionary devices,’ used do not produce burns and do not contain pepper gas or chemical agents.
The suspect was not found at the home.
Price was handcuffed and then dragged out of the home as she pleaded with police to help her son.
‘I kept screaming my baby, my baby! He’s on a ventilator, my baby’s in here!,’ she said.
Price said, the officers told her not ‘to worry about my baby,’ as she told the news outlet she was held outside for nearly 45 minutes as her sick and wounded baby was inside the house.
She described his condition as ‘blood red, choking, gasping for air.’
‘I froze at the top of the steps. I kept saying, ‘I’m scared. My baby’s in here, he’s on a ventilator.’ Then I came down the steps and they put me in handcuffs,’ Price said Tuesday.
The bodycam footage shows Price telling police and paramedics that the child seemed mostly fine, but she was worried about his breathing.
‘I mean, just the breathing isn’t normal, but like he’s OK,’ she says to one officer.
As of Tuesday, she said Waylon is improving but it has been a heartbreaking ordeal.
‘We moved up here for a fresh start. A lot of my family’s here, I just had a baby, and I’m a single mom,’ Price said.
‘My son has just worked so hard for his whole life to get where he’s at and extra trauma and these extra setbacks, there’s just no reason this should have happened.’
A horrifying ordeal took place in Ohio when a swarm of officers from the Elyira Police Special Response Team busted down the door of Reida Jennings home on Parmely Avenue looking for a suspect
Mother, Courtney Price, 25, giving an emotional update on her child, saying that heart surgery has been delayed
The baby had been sitting in a swing when dozens of officers busted down the door of the home on Parley Avenue last Wednesday, allegedly throwing two grenades and seriously injuring the baby
Video shows the baby recovering in hospital with a bright red face the flash-bang devices injuries
Several bodycam videos released Tuesday night showed that officers waited for around six seconds between the time they hammered on the door and shouted for the occupants to ‘come to the door’ and when they forced their way into the property using a battering ram while simultaneously deploying the flash-bangs.
Officers provided a ‘reasonable amount of time to answer the door,’ according to a police incident report about the raid.
Only ‘after or near’ 10 seconds the sergeant gave out orders to breach the door, the incident report said, contrary to what is shown in the bodycam videos.
The Elyira police said in a statement that the warrant and subsequent raid by the Elyria Police Special Response Team is part of an ongoing criminal investigation. Authorities claimed they announced themselves before busting in the home.
During the tactical operation, police said, two diversionary devices, commonly known as a ‘flash-bang’ were deployed outside of the residence,’ the police said in a statement.
‘These devices produce sound and light that is noticeable in day or night conditions and are intended to distract the suspects attention,’ the police said.
‘Diversionary devices do not produce a continuous burn and they do not deploy or contain any pepper gas or chemical agents.’
Police said, the child’s mother informed the officers the child had a pre-existing medical condition.
They said the Elyria Police Detectives, Elyria Fire Paramedics and the mother assessed the condition of the child, confirming the child did not sustain any apparent, visible injuries.
Police alleged the child’s mother informed detectives that she intended on taking the child to the hospital due to the child’s pre-existing illness unrelated to the tactical operation, but did not have an available car seat for transportation.
To help assist, officials said Elyria Police detectives called Lifecare Ambulance to the scene to provide any medical attention that EMS deemed necessary.
Lifecare Paramedics arrived on the scene, and the medics assessed the child. They then took the child to a nearby hospital.
The child was released later that day, but Price said her son had to be rushed back to the hospital the next day because of low blood oxygen levels.
Price said her son was born at one pound and two ounces, and has been dealing with a series of ailments since birth including, a lung disease, pulmonary hypertension, an atrial septal defect, known as a hole in his heart.
She said before the incident, her child was starting to make some health strides, but now is fighting to survive the new trauma he endured.
A scene of the officers outside the house on the ring camera
The baby in ICU. Price said before the incident, her child was starting to make some health strides, but now is fighting to survive the new trauma he endured
‘He has chemical pneumonitis which is inflammation of the lungs and irritation of the lungs and the soft tissue around the lungs,’ she told the news outlet.
In February, he was scheduled to have open heart surgery at Rainbow Babies, but the family said his surgery has now been postponed.
Price’s aunt, who was at work at the time of the ambush, said when she saw the special response team break down her door she was frightened for her niece and the baby who she said were alone.
‘As they are banging on the door, they throw the flash bang through the window and it goes over top of here and hits the baby,’ she said. ‘The baby is covered in glass.’
She said Waylon, who is now in the ICU, has burns all over him and the inside of his lungs are burned.
‘He’s already a special-needs baby. He’s a trach baby. He was on his ventilator, they let the baby lay there for about 35 to 45 minutes in the smoke,’ Jennings said.
She said the police had been at the home at least five other times looking for the same suspect.
‘They were looking for I think a teenager, to my knowledge… When they told me the name of the boy, it sounded familiar because they had been here five times the past year looking for that family and that boy,’ Jennings told the news outlet.
The home’s owner believes the person the police are searching for may be a previous tenant of a previous owner of the home.
Both Price and Jennings want accountability and an explanation on why the house was raided.
Jennings said they are worried about the baby and his upcoming surgery. ‘Yesterday he quit breathing,’ she said in part.
‘He was awaiting open heart surgery, that’s why he’s here. That’s why he’s at my house. She’s from Pikeville, Kentucky. She’s been here one week.
‘They have taken 17 months of what this baby has fought to be where he’s at and now he’s back at square one.’