An Indiana mother has filed a lawsuit after a SWAT team mistakenly raided and destroyed her home and her county left her to shoulder the damages.
More than 30 officers with the South Bend Police Department and the St Joseph County Police Department ambushed Amy Hadley’s home on the 1800 block of East Calvert Street on 10 June 2022, Ms Hadley claimed in a lawsuit filed last week. As they descended on the house, law enforcement officers threw gas grenades, smashed windows, tore down walls and launched flash bangs inside.
Ms Hadley’s then 15-year-old son Noah, the only one at home at the time, was handcuffed and transported to the police station — even after officers admitted on bodycam footage of the raid that he was clearly not the suspect they were hoping to arrest.
The actual suspect, John Parnell Thomas, was believed to have been involved in a shooting miles away but had no connection with Ms Hadley and had never been seen at the residence. A detective had arrived at the wrong conclusion that Thomas was hiding out at the home after tracking Facebook posts and pulling a mistaken IP address.
The raid left Noah traumatised and the home completely ravaged, an attorney for Ms Hadley claimed in the lawsuit. Family photos of loved ones who had passed away, her children’s drawings and personal belongings were also damaged as police rifled through the home, according to the nonprofit Institute for Justice.
But more than a year after the terrifying ordeal, government agencies have refused to give her any compensation for the $16,000 worth of damage.
Police rifled through the home after arriving at the wrong conclusion that the suspect in a shootout miles away was hiding there— (Institute for Justice/Court Records )
Some of the damage was partially covered by her insurance, but Ms Hadley's requests for assistance from both law enforcement departments have been ignored, according to her attorney, Marie Miller.
“Amy did nothing wrong to invite the destruction that government officials deliberately inflicted on her property,” Ms Miller, an attorney with the Institute for Justice, said. “The public as a whole, not Amy alone, must pay for the cost of that law enforcement action.”
Shortly after Noah exited the home at the request of law enforcement via bullhorns, officers were recorded on bodycam footage saying that they believed they had the wrong person.
“That’s not him,” an officer is heard saying. “That’s a kid.”
After Ms Hadley was alerted by a neighbour of the commotion at her home, she arrived at the residence and desperately tried to explain to officers that they were raiding the wrong house. They also noted that the family’s kitten was the only living being inside the home.
Ms Hadley desperately tried to explain to officers that they were raiding the wrong house— (Institute for Justice/Court records )
But for the following hours, Ms Hadley and her daughter were forced to see from down the street how officers continued destroying the home.
In the immediate aftermath of the raid, Ms Hadley and her two children had to sleep in their car because the air inside the home was not safe due to the toxic gases and their beds were filled with shattered glass. They returned to the home four days later.
“The raid turned our lives and our home upside down,” Ms Hadley told the Institute for Justice. “The police clearly made a huge mistake, but there has never been an apology for the way we were treated or an offer to cover the damage. If one of the agencies won’t take responsibility, I hope the court will make them.”
The Independent has reached out to the South Bend Police Department and the St Joseph County Police Department for comment.
