An Ohio mother alleges that police wrongfully raided her home and set off flash-bangs that resulted in her 17-month-old child being sent to the ICU with burn injuries.
“All I seen was lights flashing and smoke coming into the house,” Courtney Price of Elyria told CBS News. “I didn’t know what to do because there was guns pointed at me. I wanted to run to him, but I knew if I ran to him … they could’ve shot.”
Elyria cops broke a window during the Jan. 10 raid and set off the flash-bang near her child, who was already on a ventilator and waiting for surgery for a heart defect, Cincinatti.com reported.
“The allegations against our police department are extreme and deeply concerning,” Elyria Mayor Kevin Brubaker was quoted as saying.
“I have ordered a complete review of the incident and requested all information be released to the public as soon as possible,” Brubaker added.
Price and her son the only ones home at the time, and a Ring camera on the property was able to capture the events as they unfolded, according to WOIO.
“I kept screaming, ‘My baby, my baby is on a ventilator. My baby’s in here,” Price told CBS News, adding that she was taken outside and handcuffed.
The baby is now in the ICU and was diagnosed with chemical pneumonitis as a result of the flash-bang, the mother said.
The Elyria Police Department has denied the allegations in a statement published Jan. 12 and offered a conflicting account of what happened during the incident.
They said they search warrant targeted the correct address and insisted that the child did not “sustain any apparent, visible injuries.”
“Any allegation suggesting the child was exposed to chemical agents, lack of medical attention or negligence is not true,” cops said.
This investigation is ongoing.
Evan Rosen
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