A SWAT team terrorized an innocent St. Louis County family last May, all due to a pair of stolen AirPods and questionable police tactics. Brittany Shamily and her family, including a three-month-old baby, were terrified when heavily armed officers smashed through their front door screaming searching for evidence related to a carjacking that had occurred earlier that day.
The police relied on the "FindMy" app to track the stolen AirPods to Shamily's home, despite the app's known inaccuracies. This led to a search warrant being issued, and the SWAT team descended upon the unsuspecting family with overwhelming force. Body camera footage captured the terrifying moments as Shamily and her husband, Lindell Briscoe, were detained while officers ransacked their home, causing damage and leaving the residence in disarray.
From The Riverfront Times:
While the family was detained outside, the SWAT team "ransacked" their house, the lawsuit says. One SWAT team member punched a basketball-sized hole in the drywall. Another broke through a drop ceiling. They turned over drawers and left what had been an orderly house in disarray.
After this had gone on for more than half an hour, the AirPods were located — on the street outside the family's home.
The family, represented by attorneys Bevis Schock and Erich Vieth, has filed a lawsuit against the police department, alleging unreasonable use of force and violation of their rights.
The lawsuit says "A reasonable officer would have promptly known that it was an innocent family's home and not the sort of place inhabited by drug-crazed criminals." Schock believes the police department will resist disclosing their decision-making process for deploying SWAT teams: "They probably have some kind of analytic multifactor test and they will fight tooth and nail to have that test not be exposed."
From The Riverfront Times:
The day after the errant raid, Briscoe emailed one of the detectives inquiring about the department repairing his broken door. The detective agreed the county would fix it for them
A few months later, the door still busted, the family's landlord fixed it instead.
See also: SWAT team blows up innocent woman's house, city tries to stop her from suing for damages
