A police raid on a wrong home has left a 17-month-old special needs boy in the ICU.
Police in Ohio searching for a teen on weapons charges raided the wrong home, and seriously injured the 17-month-old special needs boy with a heart defect.
The incident took place last Wednesday when officers from the Elyira Police Special Response Team busted into the home on Parmely Avenue. The raid was captured on a ring camera.
Reida Jennings’ niece, Courtney Price, 25, and her 17-month-old son, Waylon May, were visiting from Kentucky and staying at her home.
According to Mail Online, the toddler was awaiting open heart surgery that is scheduled for next month.
During the bust, Price said the officers threw two flash bangs through the window. The grenades hit near her son, who was sitting on a swing near the window, and covered him in glass and smoke.
The terrified mother told Fox8 News that guns were pointed at her and she feared she’d be shot if she ran to her child. ‘One second everything was normal, 15 seconds later our world was flipped upside down,’ she recalled.
Authorities in the town about 20 miles from Cleveland said the raid was part of an investigation over a teen on weapon charges. The police claimed that the devices, ‘diversionary devices,’ used do not produce burns and do not contain pepper gas or chemical agents.
The suspect was not found at the home.
Price was handcuffed and then dragged out of the home as she pleaded with police to help her son.
‘I kept screaming my baby, my baby! He’s on a ventilator, my baby’s in here!,’ she said.
Price said, the officers told her not ‘to worry about my baby,’ as she told the news outlet she was held outside for nearly 45 minutes as her sick and wounded baby was inside the house.
She described his condition as ‘blood red, choking, gasping for air.’
The Elyira police said in a statement that the warrant and subsequent raid by the Elyria Police Special Response Team is part of an ongoing criminal investigation. Authorities claimed they announced themselves before busting into the home.
During the tactical operation, police said, two diversionary devices, commonly known as a ‘flash-bang’ were deployed outside of the residence,’ the police said in a statement.
‘These devices produce sound and light that is noticeable in day or night conditions and are intended to distract the suspects attention,’ the police said.
‘Diversionary devices do not produce a continuous burn and they do not deploy or contain any pepper gas or chemical agents.’
Police said the child’s mother informed the officers the child had a pre-existing medical condition.
They said the Elyria Police Detectives, Elyria Fire Paramedics, and the mother assessed the condition of the child, confirming the child did not sustain any apparent, visible injuries.
Police alleged the child’s mother informed detectives that she intended to take the child to the hospital due to the child’s pre-existing illness unrelated to the tactical operation, but did not have an available car seat for transportation.
To help assist, officials said Elyria Police detectives called Lifecare Ambulance to the scene to provide any medical attention that EMS deemed necessary.
Lifecare Paramedics arrived on the scene, and the medics assessed the child. They then took the child to a nearby hospital.
The child was released later that day, but Price said her son had to be rushed back to the hospital the next day because of low blood oxygen levels.
Price said her son was born at one pound and two ounces, and has been dealing with a series of ailments since birth including, a lung disease, pulmonary hypertension, and an atrial septal defect, known as a hole in his heart.
She said before the incident, her child was starting to make some health strides, but now is fighting to survive the new trauma he endured.
He has chemical pneumonitis which is inflammation of the lungs and irritation of the lungs and the soft tissue around the lungs,’ she told the news outlet.
In February, he was scheduled to have open heart surgery at Rainbow Babies, but the family said his surgery has now been postponed
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