NY: DEA issues apology for “wrong-door”‘ raid

The day after a Rockland family said they were terrorized by heavily armed police who burst into their home looking for someone who didn't live there, the federal agency that organized the drug raid apologized for the incident.

John P. Gilbride, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration, issued a statement Friday clearing Spring Valley resident David McKay and his family of anything to do with the series of drug raids that took place early Thursday in Westchester and Rockland counties. "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," Gilbride said.

McKay had demanded an apology from police Thursday, but did not wish to comment on the matter Friday evening. He said that he was at a doctor's office with his daughter and was more interested in tending to his family. McKay did say, however, that he had no knowledge of the apology statement issued by Gilbride and had not been contacted by any representatives from the DEA.

The raids broke up what police said was a ring that transported marijuana from the West Coast and resulted in the arrest of 26 people. One of the suspects lives at 46 Sharon Drive in Spring Valley. McKay lives with his wife, their 13-year-old daughter, brother-in-law and two dogs at 36 Sharon Drive.

At 5:30 a.m. Thursday, the family said police officers — their weapons drawn — barged into the house and pointed guns at the family. McKay said he recognized some of the officers as Spring Valley police. Spring Valley officials referred questions to the DEA.

The officers were screaming for someone named Michael, McKay said. When he tried to explain that no one named Michael lived at the house, McKay said the police pulled him outside his home in his underwear in the freezing cold. McKay said officers yanked his eighth-grade daughter out of her bed at gunpoint. The girl later vomited, fainted and had an asthma attack.

The McKay family has owned their home since 1998 and David McKay, who works for the Rockland sewer department , is listed in property records as the owner. Both he and his wife voluntarily submitted to extensive background checks in order to become certified foster parents.

"Though we take many precautions to prevent this type of incident from happening, drug investigations are very complex and involve many fluid factors," Gilbride said. "DEA will continue to pursue these criminal organizations to protect the public from the scourge of drug trafficking."

Botched police raids at the wrong address are on the rise nationwide as law enforcement agencies become more aggressive in their pursuit of drug suspects, said a policy expert who has studied the phenomenon.

"The 30-year-long war on drugs uses war rhetoric, outfits police in war gear and gives them military weapons and instills in police officers a war mentality," said Radley Balko, who wrote a report, "Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America" in 2006 when he was an analyst at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. "Now the police have an increasing willingness to take the metaphor literally."

His study found that reports of so-called "wrong-door" raids in which police — often heavily armed — enter the wrong home have increased dramatically over the past 20 years.

Similar incidents have occurred in other places in the Lower Hudson Valley.

Ivamae Green of Mount Vernon sued the city a year ago after she said police officers mistakenly raided her home and performed invasive body searches. The status of the case is unclear.

Yonkers settled a lawsuit with a building superintendent whose apartment was the scene of a police raid in 2007. Two police officers fired 15 shotgun rounds and killed three pit bulls in the small apartment where the 49-year-old man and his children were sleeping. Details of the settlement were unclear.

Another Yonkers family this week was awarded a $20,000 settlement from the city after a woman sued, claiming that police burst into her apartment in 2007 with weapons drawn in search of drugs.

Original report here




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