Ohio City Mayor Kevin Brubaker of Elyria has ordered an investigation to look into the incident where a mother in the state claims that police raided the wrong house, which led to the injury of her 17-month-old toddler.
The city has also released body camera video footage of the incident that showed the home being raided by law enforcement personnel. The video was highly redacted but showed officials using a flash-bang grade to get inside the house, breaking a window to a room where the young boy was said to be sitting in a bouncer.
Botched Police Raid
The footage showed officers handcuffing the mother of the child out on the front lawn of the residence. While her face was blurred, she was later identified as Courtney Price and she previously said that her son Waylon was on a ventilator at the time of the police raid.
In a statement, Price said that she could be heard screaming, noting that she was scared at the time because her son was still inside the house. The young boy was later taken to UH Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital, as per WKYC.
While he is now out of the intensive care unit (ICU), his mother said that he is still being treated for inflammation of the lungs and irritation of the eyes along with the lingering effects of smoke. Elyria police later denied that the toddler was exposed to chemical irritants and asserted that he was given proper medical attention.
Price also claimed that one officer told her that the law enforcement personnel had gone to the wrong house, which is something that police also denied. However, the search warrant that police had had the Parmely Avenue address but the document was for a teen suspect.
The owners of the house were Price's aunt and uncle Redia and Marlon Jennings and the family continued to assert that they did not have any connection to the suspect that police were looking for.
Injury of 17-Month-Old Toddler
Despite police denying Price's claims, the mother said that audio from her Ring camera proved them wrong. On Tuesday, a clip that was shared revealed someone saying "It's the wrong house," according to Yahoo News.
It was not clear who was actually speaking in the recording because the camera fell to the ground and went dark after police deployed flash-bang devices. Brubaker called the incident "serious and disturbing."
Just a week before the police raid, Price, who is a single mother, moved from Kentucky to Elyria. Prior to the whole ordeal, she said that she heard the "loudest knock" that she had ever heard in her life at around 2:12 p.m.
Jennings noted that law enforcement personnel have been frequently visiting the home in the year that she rented it looking for a suspect who no longer lives there. She added that she no longer feels safe because of what had happened.
She said that all of their furniture was broken, adding that they were now stained as law enforcement personnel just "walked all over everything," said Cincinnati.
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