Texas police raid wrong home, leaving family without heat during winter storm
Galveston Police Chief Doug Balli has been placed on administrative leave after a SWAT team raided the wrong home and left it wrecked after a recent forced entry. Erika Rios said she and her teen children were awakened by police megaphones and shattering glass as SWAT members fired less-than-lethal rounds into windows and kicked in their doors, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.
The family was awakened around 2 a.m. on January 22 by the Galveston police who were looking for a 17-year-old named Cameron Vargas whom they alleged was a murder suspect. Vargas, a friend of Rios’ son, was at the home but left hours earlier. Vargas was later arrested but then cleared of the charges. The raid was caught on the family’s home cameras.
Now, Rios says that the family is without windows and a heater because of damage caused by Galveston SWAT. The National Weather Service says Galveston’s expected temperature lows for Tuesday, January 31, and Wednesday, February 1, are 44 and 48 degrees.
“We have eight double-paned storm windows that they shot through, which will cost at least $1,300, a broken-down fence and a heater that won’t work because they tore up the wiring in our attic,” Rios told the Galveston Daily News. “I’ve been left with traumatized kids, no heat in my home and busted windows, all because they were looking for somebody who didn’t even live there, who was also innocent.”
Chief Balli is on administrative leave for 10 days and the city is conducting an internal investigation into a “failure of communication.”
