Iowa family "terrorized" by police SWAT team

[Schuby]

In search of items purchased with a stolen credit card, an Ankeny (Iowa) Police Department SWAT team raided a family home wearing battle gear, helmets and face covering hoods, and carrying ballistic shields and pointing military style assault rifles. They broke open the door with a battering ram, and, after a failed search, removed or disabled household security cameras, which captured the raid footage nonetheless.

Particularly startling, the homeowner's son was in the bathroom when the raid began, and with a licensed sidearm. As police tried to kick in the bathroom door, he momentarily withdrew his sidearm, but then reholstered it when someone yelled "police" through the door.

Later the team went in search of a mosquito to kill with an ax.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/..._ea22e378-b26e-11e2-bbf2-a6f9e9d79e19&hpid=z9

 

[ohiogirl]

I saw this on the news. The commentators were asking, well, why did the family have security cameras up? I would like to ask, well, why did the police feel it necessary to break the security cameras? If they felt they were there legitimately, what could possibly have been caught on film that they would need to worry about?

 

[Zuri]

Did they get the wrong house?

 

[Schuby]

Did they get the wrong house?

I don't think they got the wrong house in the sense that the house they searched was the house the warrant authorized them to search. So either they were acting on bad information and no one living there was involved with the CC fraud or whoever was disposed of the purchases elsewhere.

 

[Schuby]

Update: a department official today said the raid was unusually aggressive because a legally licensed handgun was registered to someone living at the address, even though he was not suspected of being involved in the credit card fraud and has no criminal record. So apparently by owning and registering gun, legally, you are a presumptive criminal.

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20140205/NEWS01/302050051/?odyssey=nav|head&nclick_check=1