An Ohio family says a case of mistaken identity led to police raiding their home, sending a 17-month-old toddler to an intensive care unit.
“When I got to the top of the steps I noticed it was police and then the next thing I know, the door bust open, the windows are busting out around us. I have multiple guns pointed at me and I just freeze in fear, I see my baby getting covered in smoke. I was screaming ‘my baby, my baby, he’s on a ventilator, my baby is in here,’” Courtney Price said in a Facebook post.
She was recalling a raid by Elyria police on Jan. 10.
Surveillance video shared by WOIO shows dozens of officers converging on the home, then throwing a flashbang that deployed smoke.
Price was at the home alone with her son, WOIO reported. The resident of the home, Reida Jennings, was at work when she saw Ring doorbell video of what was happening, according to WJW.
“As they are banging on the door, they throw the flashbang through the window and it goes over top of here and hits the baby. The baby is covered in glass,” Jennings told the news outlet.
Police said in a Facebook post that two flashbangs were deployed outside of the home. They said the devices “produce sound and light that is noticeable in day or night conditions and are intended to distract the suspects attention.”
They denied that one was thrown through a window, WOIO reported.
The family said the toddler, Waylon, has medical complications and was on a ventilator.
“He needed (six) more liters of oxygen, his belly was retracting so hard and his vent settings needed turned up,” the Facebook post said.
Price said the smoke burned Waylon’s eyes, body and lungs and that he was put in an ICU.
“He’s already a special-needs baby. He’s a trach baby,” Price told WJW. “He was on his ventilator, they let the baby lay there for about 35 to 45 minutes in the smoke.”
Police said flashbangs do not contain any pepper gas or chemical agents.
“Any allegation suggesting the child was exposed to chemical agents, lack of medical attention or negligence is not true,” police said.
Police said paramedics on the scene did not find any visible injuries on the child.
“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; however, she lacked an available car seat for transportation,” police said.
Police said they called an ambulance, and the child was taken to a hospital.
McClatchy News reached out to the Elyria Police Department for more information but did not immediately hear back.
Jennings said she believes the warrant was meant for a teen who previously lived at the residence before they moved in. She said the police have been to her home five times in the past year looking for the person, The Chronicle-Telegram reported.
The address of the home was listed on the warrant, police said, and the investigation that led to the warrant continues.
“I want everyone to know what they did. I want them to see what they did to my innocent, precious baby. No apology, no nothing. Just a ‘sorry, wrong house,’” Price said in the Facebook post.
Waylon was moved out of the ICU on Jan. 12 but remained in the hospital, WOIO reported.
“It hurts me more than anything because he’s fought so hard to get to where he is,” Price told WOIO. “He fought for a year to get off the ventilator for 15 hours a day and now he can’t go off for a split second.”
She told the outlet he was diagnosed with chemical pneumonitis.
Chemical pneumonitis is “inflammation of the lungs or breathing difficulty due to inhaling chemical fumes or breathing in and choking on certain chemicals,” according to MedlinePlus. It can be caused by smoke, noxious fumes and grain and fertilizer dust, among other things.
Elyria is about 30 miles southwest of Cleveland.