Thread: Atlanta Baby Seriously Hurt When SWAT Team Throws Stun Grenade In Crib During No Knoc

Atlanta Baby Seriously Hurt When SWAT Team Throws Stun Grenade In Crib During No Knock Raid

By Steve Straub On May 30, 2014 · 340 Comments · In US, Video


While we are big supporters of law enforcement, and know it a tough, thankless job, this is awful and shows why no-knock raids are a bad idea and massive force should be a last, rather than first resort.

Via Jonathan Turley:

We have previously discussed our concerns over the seemingly exponential increase in “no knock” raids in the country where police give no warning before raiding a home. (here and here and hereand here and here).
A tragedy in Atlanta will only increase those concerns for many. Atlanta police say that they purchased drugs at a home and returned with a no-knock warrant late at 3 a.m. to arrest Wanis Thometheva, 30.
They burst into the home and threw a stun grenade which landed next to the head of a 19-month-old sleeping in his crib and exploded. The baby is in serious condition and is in a medically induced coma. The pictures of the baby are too disturbing to post.
…
For those who are critical over the increase in no-knock warrants, the incident raises that same concern that magistrates are now granting these warrants with little thought and they are becoming the rule rather than the exception. The question is whether such injuries could be avoided if police announced themselves and demand entry.
Police now routinely ask and receive warrants that waive the constitutional requirement to “knock and announcement.” Not only is this requirement codified in the U.S. Code, but it is viewed as a factor in determining if a search or seizure is reasonable under the fourth amendment.

Watch the video:


Video at the Page Link:

Should the regular use of no-knock raids by law enforcement be stopped?

http://www.thefederalistpapers.org/u...-no-knock-raid

Updated: 5:30 p.m. Friday, May 30, 2014 | Posted: 5:13 p.m. Thursday, May 29, 2014

Toddler critically burned during SWAT raid

Video at the Page Link:

Related

RAW VIDEO: Sisters record messages for brother burned in SWAT raid

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Crib where stun grenade landed


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Special to wsbtv.com
The family of 19-month-old Bounkham Phonesavanh says he was injured when a SWAT team raided a Habersham County home.


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Special to wsbtv.com
The family of 19-month-old Bounkham Phonesavanh says he was injured when a SWAT team raided a Habersham County home.


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Special to wsbtv.com
Family members say SWAT teams burned this portable crib with a grenade during a raid.


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Habersham County Sheriff's Office
Police arrested Wanis Thometheva, 30, while serving a drug warrant on May 28, 2014.



RAW VIDEO: Habersham County sheriff explains raid where baby injured by stun grenade


RAW VIDEO Mother of toddler injured by stun grenade speaks out

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ATLANTA —
The mother of the toddler injured after a flashbang was thrown into the home where their family was staying told Channel 2 Action News Friday morning that the boy remains in a medically-induced coma.

• UPDATE:DA to investigate SWAT raid

“He is in a medically induced coma and he is paralyzed. I hope he’s not going to remember this. I know his sisters, his mommy and his daddy will never forget this," the boy's mother, Alecia Phonesavanh, said. "Our kids have been through enough this year. This is just more trauma that they didn’t need, and I just wish there was something better I could do to make it better for him. Wrong place, wrong time. There’s nothing I can do about it."
The family's home in Wisconsin recently burned down, prompting their trip to Atlanta to visit family.
“There’s nothing we can do to change the situation, my husband and I would gladly both give up our lives just to see him not like this. He’s such a happy little boy, and to see him like this laying there, not moving, it’s heartbreaking. We just want to hold him and we can’t," Phonesavanh said.
A family says a SWAT team raided their home in the middle of the night and seriously injured a 19-month-old boy with a stun grenade.
Alecia Phonesavanh told Channel 2’s Ryan Young her child is at the Grady Memorial Hospital burn unit and is in a medically induced coma.

• RAW VIDEO: Child's mother speaks out on raid that injured her toddler

Phonesavanh said she was at her sister-in-law’s home in Habersham County early Wednesday when police raided the house.

"It's my baby. He's only a baby. He didn't deserve any of this," Phonesavanh said.

Phonesavanh told Young the grenade landed in the child’s crib; she showed him a photo of a charred portable crib.

"It landed in his playpen and exploded on his pillow right in his face," Phonesavanh said.

She also showed Young pictures of her child in the Grady burn unit. Channel 2 has decided not to share most of the photos because of the graphic nature of the child’s injuries.

"He's in the burn unit. We go up to see him and his whole face is ripped open. He has a big cut on his chest," Phonesavanh said. "He's only 19 months old. He didn't do anything."

Cornelia police Chief Rick Darby confirmed that the raid took place at the home just before 3 a.m. He said a multijurisdictional drug unit issued a warrant and organized the SWAT operation.

Deputies said they bought drugs from the house, and came back with a no-knock warrant to arrest a man known to have drugs and weapons.
“There was no clothes, no toys, nothing to indicate that there was children present in the home. If there had been then we'd have done something different,” Darby said.

"Everyone's sleeping. There's a loud bang and a bright light," Phonesavanh said. "The cops threw that grenade in the door without looking first, and it landed right in the playpen and exploded on his pillow right in his face."

They arrested Wanis Thometheva, 30, during the raid.

Darby told Channel 2's Wendy Corona that the entire unit is very broken up about the incident.

“You're trying to minimize anything that could go wrong and in this case the greatest thing went wrong,” Darby said. “Is it going to make us be more careful in the next one? Yes ma'am, it is. It's gonna make us double question.”
The Phonesavanh family told Young they have no insurance and have set up a fund to pay for medical expenses.


http://www.wsbtv.com/news/news/local...at-raid/nf9SJ/

County officials refuse to pay medical bills for toddler burned by SWAT grenade

Published time: August 18, 2014 15:33



AFP Photo / Getty Images / Spencer Platt

Officials in Georgia’s Habersham County are refusing to pay for the mounting medical expenses of a toddler seriously injured by a flash grenade after a failed SWAT team raid earlier this year.
Bounkham 'Bou Bou' Phonesavanh was just 19 months old when a Habersham SWAT team initiated a no-knock warrant at his family’s home at around 3 a.m. on May 28. Bou Bou was asleep in his crib at the time, surrounded by his family and three sisters. The toddler was severely injured when SWAT team officers broke through the house’s door and threw a flashbang grenade that ultimately landed in the Bou Bou’s crib.
When the stun grenade went off, it caused severe burns on the child and opened a gash in his chest. As a result, Bou Bou lost the ability to breathe on his own and was left in a medically induced coma for days after the incident. His extensive recovery necessitated stays in two hospitals before he finally went home in July.
Now, Habersham County officials are sticking by their decision to ignore the family’s plight, the family’s attorney, Muwali Davis, told WSB-TV.
Habersham County’s attorney responded with a statement saying that the Board of County Commissioners will not pay given it is supposedly illegal to do so.
"The question before the board was whether it is legally permitted to pay these expenses. After consideration of this question following advice of counsel, the board of commissioners has concluded that it would be in violation of the law for it to do so."
The family now says an independent investigation showed law enforcement used suspect information to attain a search warrant.
As RT reported previously, the SWAT conducted the raid as part of an effort to apprehend Wanis Thometheva, believed to be selling methamphetamine. Police said that their records indicated the suspect could be armed, and that a confidential informant had successfully purchased drugs from him earlier in the day. At the time of the raid, however, Thometheva was not at the home, and was eventually arrested elsewhere.
Additionally, an unnamed public official told the Washington Post that the reported drug deal was worth only $50.
Habersham County's sheriff previously said the confidential informant who bought drugs at the home told police that he did not believe any children lived at the house.
Bou Bou’s mother, Alecia Phonesavanh, said that was unlikely if they had valid information on their suspect.
“If they had an informant in that house, they knew there were kids,” Phonesavanh told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution after the incident. “They say there were no toys. There is plenty of stuff. Their shoes were laying all over.”
In June, the family called for a federal investigation into the conduct of the SWAT team.
The Phonesavanh family said it was not involved with drugs at all, and was only staying with Thometheva, the homeowner’s son, because their Wisconsin home was damaged in a fire. They moved back to Wisconsin once Bou Bou’s health improved. Supporters have planned a fundraiser this month for the family.
An official investigation into the incident is ongoing, according to WSB-TV.

http://rt.com/usa/181100-baby-swat-grenade-medical/

Freedom Outpost

Cost of Medical Bills for Baby Hit by SWAT Grenade? Over $800,000. County’s Refusal to Pay? Priceless http://ow.ly/Av4Ze



Cost of Medical Bills for Baby Hit by SWAT Grenade? Over $800,000. County’s Refusal to Pay? Priceless

Daisy Luther 4 hours ago
2 Comments

Remember back in May, when a gang of uniformed thugs from the Habersham County SWAT team threw a flash-bang grenade right on top of a sleeping baby?

Well, stellar group that they are, they've refused to pay the over $800,000 in medical bills for the child that they permanently disfigured and nearly killed. That's right. They aren't paying the bills and are leaving the family to try and cover the costs for the toddler's care.
Our militarized police forces are claiming too many innocent victims, and they aren't being held accountable.
The family's attorneys, from the Davis Bozeman Law Firm in Decatur, Georgia, released a statement this morning:

The family of Bounkham "Baby Bou Bou" Phonesavanh - the child severely injured on May 28, 2014 by a flash bang grenade thrown in his playpen during a botched police raid while his family was staying in Georgia - received a copy of the notice sent to their son's doctor's office that Habersham County reneges on their public promise to pay for the medical expenses of this working-class family's child. "Bounkham "Baby Bou Bou" Phonesavanh has, to date, incurred an estimated $800,000 worth of expenses due to his injuries. Shortly after severely burning "Baby Bou Bou" with a flash bang grenade, the Habersham County Sheriff's Department vowed to pay for the child's medical expenses. Last week, the family discovered through medical providers that the county will not pay any medical bills. The county stated that it would be "illegal" to pay.
Recently, Alecia Phonesavanh shared her son's injuries are so severe that doctors predict several more surgeries throughout his life to repair the hole in his chest and major facial injuries.

Ummm…illegal?
The Habersham County Attorney responded on behalf of the county Board of Commissioners with this vague explanation.

"The question before the board was whether it is legally permitted to pay these expenses. After consideration of this question following advice of counsel, the board of commissioners has concluded that it would be in violation of the law for it to do so."

It's important to remember a few things regarding this case.
1.) There is no question or denial that the SWAT team threw a grenade right on top of a sleeping baby.
2.) No drugs were found on the premises.
3.) The person they were looking for was not present at the time of the no-knock raid.
It's bad enough that it happened. But to cripple the family financially with nearly a million dollars in medical expenses on top of that?


This isn't even about the shoddy police work, the bad intel, or the poor decision to throw a grenade (that was designed to be rolled) into a room full of children. Nor is it about the slimy sheriff of Habersham County, who, if you recall, defended the actions of his SWAT team.
Even though he claims they'd been staking out the house for days, they somehow had no idea that 4 children were present. (This is despite the minivan with the stick figures in the windows, the car seats, and the typical kid detritus like shoes and clothes and toys.) The raid was made based on a story by a confidential informant who claims to have bought $50 worth of meth from the nephew of the homeowner.
According to a report on RT, Sheriff Terrell…

…told the AJC the raid was properly executed, but ended in a tragic result. He defended the use of the no-knock warrant and lack of investigative work, saying that it would have risked revealing that the officers were watching the house. (source)

This is about a complete lack of accountability, or, at the very least, refusal to take responsibility for a horrible mistake that crosses into criminal negligence.
What an absolutely repulsive group of individuals.
They blew a hole through the face and chest cavity of a 19 month old child, permanently disfigured him; put him through an unfathomable amount of agony with treatments and repeated surgeries; and now, the family, which was already struggling financially after losing their home in a fire, is stuck with the bill, which will continue to climb, since Bou Bou is looking at several more operations.

"To attempt to address the ever increasing medical bills, the family is hosting a Community Fundraiser Saturday, August 23, 2014 from 3:00pm – 12:00am at the Veterans of Foreign War Center (VFW) located at 1015 Center Ave. Janesville, Wisconsin 53546. The Phonesavanh family and community supporters are calling for church leaders, civil and human rights advocates, organizations and citizens of goodwill to support the family by donating online, or by attending their fundraiser to help with the looming medical bills they are facing to continue healing their son."

Here's what you can do:

• You can donate online at www.justiceandprayersforboubou.org or make a donation at any Wells Fargo location to the account "Bounkham Phonesavanh."
• "Like" the family's Facebook page so you can stay updated.
• You can call the Habersham County Sheriff's Office at (706) 839-0500
• You can use THIS CONTACT FORM to email Sheriff Terrell
• You can email the Board of Commissioners, who made this decision commissioners@habershamga.com
• You can email the Habersham County Solicitor General whose stated goals are "to deliver justice swiftly with a fair and impartial attitude; to hold defendants accountable for their actions; to advocate protection of victims and offer assistance and support through the Court process; and to improve community relations between the State Court and the Public." His email address is wro@northgeorgialawyers.com
• Learn about How To Survive Police Encounters

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