Durrell Jones was sleeping on the living room floor with his 4-year-old son when armed sheriff’s deputies wearing bulletproof vests kicked open the door at 8:15 a.m.

“By the time I opened my eyes they were already standing over us with the guns pointed at me and my son,” said Jones, 22.

The deputies were looking for a man they wanted to arrest for a shooting just down the road in Newtown, and had a tip he was at 2548 25th St.

The problem is that Jones and his son were at 2552 25th St., something clearly labeled on the mailbox and front porch.

The first mistaken break-in was more than enough for Sheila Jones, who bought the house a year ago. But what makes her even angrier is that the police barged back into the house 20 minutes later.

Pursuing a man suspected of a nearby shooting is probably a justified use of these kinds of tactics. But Jesus. How hard is it to double-check the address first?

I have read your findings on botched raids and couldn’t agree more that the use of SWAT is out of control.

I was recently shot through my front door by a Florida SWAT team when they came to my house looking for pot. The SWAT team leader was someone I had considered to be a friend of mine. He had been my neighbor for years, works out at the same gym I do and is the boyfriend of a longtime friend of mine. That didn’t stop them from covering their faces with ski masks at 3:30am and shooting my front door lock with a shot gun, though.

I was on the other side of the door looking through the peep hole at the only thing I could see, which was a man wearing a ski mask. Within seconds, I heard gun fire and felt something rip through my lower right leg. This all could have been avoided if the team leader (my so called friend) could have rang my doorbell and showed his face. I have no prior criminal history and am not known as a violent person. They never reported the injury, and even went so far as telling the treating physician write on his medical report that I cut my leg on the door frame as I was trying to get away.

Imagine, I was trying to run out of the front door that at the time was being broken in to by armed masked gun men, while wearing nothing but a pair of boxers!

How successful do you reckon the meatball defense would be if the accused was anyone but a cop? And will the city send a SWAT team to arrest Mrs. Meatball, who, after all, bought and possessed marijuana; or is such a police action strictly reserved for people who don’t happen to have relatives in law enforcement?

This entry was posted on Monday, November 13th, 2006 at 9:05 am by Radley Balko and is filed under Police Militarization, Police Professionalism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.