DEA Agents Raid Wrong Home In Garfield
GARFIELD (KDKA) – Drug enforcement agents raided a home in Garfield Thursday morning.
The family inside was scared, especially considering they weren't who the agents were after.
The incident happened around 7:30 a.m. on Schenley Street.
Everyone was still asleep inside the Jackson family home until DEA agents showed up with an arrest warrant.
"We woke up to yelling, 'Open the door, open the door police! Open up!' My boyfriend jumps up, unlocks the door, they come barging in. Guns were drawn, they had shields," Dyionne Jackson said.
"They told me to get down on my knees and put my hands on my head," Keymon Jackson said.
The problem was that the arrest warrant was not for anyone inside the home. When agents came in with their guns drawn, there were several small children inside, including a baby.
"They just pointed their guns at me and my brother," Chandon Jackson.
The DEA said they did execute several arrest warrants on Thursday, but would not comment on the specific cases.
KDKA-TV's Lynne Hayes-Freeland was told that agents generally go on scene, secure the scene, protect the agents and any civilians on scene. At that point, they will execute the warrant.
However, that's not what it seemed like for the family who found themselves in the middle of a search for a man they had never seen before.
"It's a violation of our civil liberties at this point. They didn't really apologize. It was a half-hearted apology like, 'Sorry, mistake,'" one man said.
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