Courtney Price says she traveled from Kentucky to Ohio to seek medical care for her 17-month-old son, who was born premature with a lung condition and a hole in his heart. The single mother says a surgery to repair that hole has now been delayed as her son faces complications from a chemical irritant used by police as they raided her aunt's rented home, searching for a person she says hasn't lived there for a year. On Tuesday, NBC News aired footage from a doorbell camera in which a man outside the home is heard saying, "It's the wrong house." However, Elyria police said the Jan. 10 raid targeted "the correct address of the search warrant." They also said the child at home did not "sustain any apparent, visible injuries."
Police had raided a home earlier on Jan. 10, arresting two suspects and recovering three guns listed as stolen. That raid led police to seek a warrant to search Price's aunt's home, where they expected to find firearms, ammo, firearm accessories, and tools related to a burglary, per NBC. Bodycam videos released Tuesday show a dozen officers in SWAT gear demanding occupants answer the door just six seconds before using a battering ram to bust it open, deploying two flash-bangs at the same time. Price says she was headed for the door when it flew open and she found herself at gunpoint. She says she watched smoke enter the home before she was placed in handcuffs. Her son was left "in the house for 39 minutes inhaling everything," she tells Cleveland.com.
"I kept saying, 'I'm scared. My baby's in here, he's on a ventilator,'" she says, per NBC. Price says the boy was cleared at a hospital but temporarily stopped breathing the following day. She recorded video of a doctor at a different hospital telling her he had inflammation of the lungs from inhalation of an irritant, per NBC. He also had a chemical reaction "in and around his eyes," Price says. Police claim the flash-bangs were deployed outside the home and contained no chemical agents. "Any allegation suggesting the child was exposed to chemical agents, lack of medical attention or negligence is not true," according to a statement.
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However, Elyria Mayor Kevin A. Brubaker has since asked the Lorain County Sheriff's Office to investigate the "serious and disturbing" incident. Price claims police visited the home five times in the last year looking for the person named in the search warrant and were repeatedly told he had moved out, per Cleveland.com. On a GoFundMe page, she claims the individual had even updated his address in the courts three weeks before the raid. (More police raids stories.)
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