CATO Institute - Interactive Map of Botched Paramilitary Police Raids

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Title: Glen Williams

Type: Raid on an innocent suspect.

State: LA

Description: In June 1988, police in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana conduct a 2 a.m. raid on the home of Glen Williamson. When Williamson points out that the name on the warrant reads "Glen Williams," the deputy merely adds an "on" to the end of the last name, and arrests him anyway. Williamson spends a night in jail before police concede their mistake and release him. Source: John Dentinger, "Narc, narc; diary of police raids on the wrong house," Playboy, April 1990, p. 49.

Date: Jun 1, 1988

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Title: Burbank Commons Apartment

Type: Raid on an innocent suspect.

State: LA

Description: Eyewitnesses claim that SWAT officers raided an apartment in Baton Rouge, Louisiana looking for marijuana. At least one person said that he witnessed an officer throw a flash grenade over a balcony and several witnesses were distressed by the noise. While the Baton Rouge Police Department declined to comment on the raid, the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's office did confirm that they assisted in the action. No drugs were found and no arrests were made. Source: J.J. Alcantara, "Police officers raid Burbank Commons apartment," LSU Daily Reveill

Date: Feb 27, 2008

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I was living in the apartment underneath when this happened. Scared the living shite out of me when the flash bang went off. I looked out my window and saw a shite load of cops everywhere.

whoever decides to raid a college kid's apartment for marijuana is a fricking loser.

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I saw one from 1988, if this is all the mistakes dumbass cops have made over the last quarter of a century, I'd be thrilled.

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That's why I doubt the complete accuracy of the data. It seems his sources were from local print media, and they are certainly not guarranteed to have a report for every "botched" raid.

For the data to be perfect, it would require self reporting from the local police agencies. And we know that ain't happening.

Some really bad ones on there:

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Title: Annie Rae Dixon

Type: Death of an innocent.

State: TX

Description: 84-year-old Annie Rae Dixon, a bedridden paraplegic, is shot and killed after police officers from the nearby town of Kilgore break into her Tyler, Texas home. They have the wrong address. Police later say one raiding officer's weapon "accidentally" discharged, firing the bullet that struck and killed Dixon. A jury would later acquit the raiding officers of any wrongdoing.

Date: Jan 29, 1992

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Title: Dexter Herbert

Type: Death of an innocent.

State: CA

Description: In March 1989, police in Gardena, California conduct a no-knock raid on the home of Lorine Harris. Police officer Davie Mathieson, apparently startled by the flashbang grenade deployed by his fellow officers, accidentally fires his gun, striking and killing Harris's 20-year old son, Dexter Herbert. Herbert is unarmed.

Date: Mar 15, 1989

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Title: Jeffrey Miles

Type: Death of an innocent.

State: KY

Description: On March 26, 1987, police in Jeffersontown, Kentucky raid the home of Jeffrey Miles, 24 on an informant's tip. During the raid, Officer John Rucker shoots Miles, and kills him. Police would later discover that Miles wasn't a suspect. The raid had been targeted at the wrong home.

Date: Mar 26, 1987

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Title: Aiyana Jones

Type: Death of an innocent.

State: MI

Description: Police executed a search on the home of Mertilla Jones in pursuit of a homicide suspect. A flash grenade was thrown into the home, reportedly landing on Mertilla's 7 year old granddaughter, Aiyana. What happened next is disputed. According to police, they entered the premises and announced their presence. Mertilla struggled with the police and one of their weapons discharged. The shot fatally wounded Aiyana who died at the scene. According to the Jones family lawyer, one of the officers fired into the home from the porch prior to any struggle with Mertilla, who struggled in shock at seeing her granddaughter murdered. The incident was filmed by a television crew but the tape was confiscated by the police. The Jones' attorney claims to have seen a copy of the tape and that it supports his version of the events.

Date: May 16, 2010

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Title: Rev. Accelyne Williams

Type: Death of an innocent.

State: MA

Description: Williams, a 75-year-old retired minister, dies of a heart attack after 13 members of a heavily-armed Boston SWAT team storm his apartment in body armor and black masks. One police source tells the Boston Herald of the raid, "Everything was done right, except it was the wrong apartment." Police later discover that an informant had given them incorrect information that a "Jamaican drug posse operated out of the building," and failed to specify which apartment to target. A week after the raid, media investigators discovered that three of the officers involved had been accused in a 1989 civil rights suit of using nonexistent informants to secure drug warrants. The suit resulted in a $50,000 settlement from the city of Boston and one witness testified that an officer apologized after realizing the mistake, telling its occupants, "this happens all the time."
Date: Mar 25, 1994

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Title: Jose Colon

Type: Death of an innocent.

State: NY

Description: On April 19, 2002, police prepare to conduct a heavily-armed late-night drug raid (it includes a helicopter) on a home in Bellport, New York. As four paramilitary unit officers rush across the front lawn, 19 year-old Jose Colon emerges from the targeted house. According to the police account of the raid, as officers approach, one of them trips over a tree root, then falls forward, into the lead officer, causing his gun to accidentally discharge three times. One of the three bullets hits Colon in the side of the head, killing him. Police say they screamed at Colon to "get down" as they approached, though two witnesses told a local newscast that, (a) their screams were inaudible over the sound of the helicopter, and (b) the officers appeared to be frozen before the shooting -- no one tripped. One of the witnesses later recanted his story after speaking with police. Colon was never suspected of buying or selling drugs. Police proceeded with the raid, and seized eight ounces of marijuana. A subsequent investigation found no criminal wrongdoing on the part of police. The family of Colon -- who had no criminal record and was months away from becoming the first member of his family to earn a bachelor's degree -- is pursuing a lawsuit.

Date: Apr 19, 2002

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Title: Richard Brown

Type: Death of an innocent.

State: FL

Description: After a tip from an informant stating that he was selling drugs from his home, a Miami SWAT team bursts into the home of 73-year-old retired salesman Richard Brown, and immediately begins firing. By the end of the raid, they'd pumped 123 rounds into Brown and his apartment, killing him at the scene. Brown's 14-year-old great-granddaughter was also home at the time of the raid, and cowered in the bathroom during the gunfire. Police found no drugs in Brown's home. The city of Miami would later pay a $2.5 million settlement to Brown's estate after officers on the raiding SWAT team were indicted for lying about the details of the raid. Former Miami Internal Affairs supervisor and 25-year police veteran John Dalton, now retired, told the Miami Herald that the Internal Affairs supervisor at the time of the raid, William O'Brien, discouraged a thorough investigation of the Brown case. "They were very defensive about this shooting from the beginning," Dalton said, adding that he'd been "chewed out" by O'Brien for asking difficult questions.
Date: Mar 12, 1996

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Title: Christie Green

Type: Death of an innocent.

State: VA

Description: In December 1998, police in Richmond, Virginia conduct a paramilitary drug raid on an apartment suspected of drug activity. During the raid, Sgt. George Ingram fires a "breaching round" shotgun shell -- intended to blow the locks off of doors -- into the door leading to the apartment's kitchen. Ingram fires five rounds, one of which goes through the door and strikes 18-year-old Christie Green in the chest. Green later dies from her injuries. Green didn't live at the apartment, and police concede they had no reason to believe she was involved in any drug activity, nor that she knew any was going on in the apartment.

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Seeing how this thing goes back to 1985 and you think of how many police raids have taken place since then, I'd say botched police raids are not that big

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So you're of the opinion that if the media didn't report it, then it never happened?

All the sources are newspapers, and much of this data is pre-internet. Your, either iditoic or intentionally obtuse, statement is one of the reasons I was even hesitant to post it. But I think most intelligent people realize this is a snapshot and not the entire story.

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So you're of the opinion that if the media didn't report it, then it never happened?

All the sources are newspapers, and much of this data is pre-internet. Your, either iditoic or intentionally obtuse, statement is one of the reasons I was even hesitant to post it. But I think most intelligent people realize this is a snapshot and not the entire story.

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You're*

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84-year-old Annie Rae Dixon, a bedridden paraplegic, is shot and killed after police officers from the nearby town of Kilgore break into her Tyler, Texas home. They have the wrong address. Police later say one raiding officer's weapon "accidentally" discharged, firing the bullet that struck and killed Dixon. A jury would later acquit the raiding officers of any wrongdoing.

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Description: After a tip from an informant stating that he was selling drugs from his home, a Miami SWAT team bursts into the home of 73-year-old retired salesman Richard Brown, and immediately begins firing. By the end of the raid, they'd pumped 123 rounds into Brown and his apartment,

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Police found no drugs in Brown's home.

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Jesus