Colorado SWAT Team Raids Wrong Apartment, Locks Innocent Family in Police Car
The cops tried to cover up their mistake after they "terrorized" the family, according to a lawsuit.
A Denver SWAT team burst into the wrong family's apartment, holding several women and children at gunpoint before locking them in a police car for hours. Despite multiple signs that the cops had raided the wrong apartment, they still searched it, forced out its terrified occupants, and—according to a lawsuit filed this week—attempted to cover up their misconduct.
On June 6, 2023, a Denver SWAT team was set to arrest a man named Danny Garcia on "very serious alleged violent crimes," according to the lawsuit. In the documents listed in the complaint, the officers repeatedly documented that Garcia lived in unit 307 of his apartment building. However, despite this fact—and the apartment numbers prominently displayed by each apartment door—the officers rammed the door to apartment 306, shouting "that they knew Danny Garcia was in their apartment and to come out with their hands up," according to the complaint.
Inside, the SWAT team found Sharon Shelton-Knight, her two adult daughters Kristy and Brittany, and Kristy's two young daughters. Body camera footage referenced in the suit shows the officers pointing their guns at the women, one of whom had just gotten out of the shower when police burst in.
After forcing Sharon and Kristy out of the apartment with guns drawn, the officers entered the apartment, and found the two children hiding in their bedroom.
"After refusing to bring the children's mother or grandmother to comfort and reassure them, and after stolidly refusing to even consider what they were repeatedly told about being in the wrong apartment, the officers swept the apartment to the room with the children in the back, with assault rifles out and brandished at the least in low ready positions," the suit states. "They found the children cowering in their bedroom, extremely frightened by this SWAT team who had just rammed their door very loudly while screaming. The children immediately began loud and prolonged screaming."
After forcing Brittany and her two children out of the apartment, an officer locked the family in the back of an unmanned vehicle for several hours. Making matters worse, the suit claims that the officers soon attempted to cover up their mistake. In a report on the incident, one of the officers wrote that "due to the layout of the 3rd floor, occupants in #306 were contacted, advised of the situation, and evacuated for their safety." Another officer wrote that "an elderly female exited 306 and was advised of the situation. We then evacuated her and two adult females and two young children from their apartment due to the suspects apartment directly across the hallway."
The family's suit claims that the officers' actions violated protections against unreasonable search and seizure and excessive force in the Colorado Constitution, arguing that the officers "unconstitutionally and intentionally assaulted Plaintiffs by threatening them with excessive force when they were suspected of no crimes, engaged in no resistance or attempt to flee, were not armed or suspected of being armed, and in fact were defenseless."
While police would typically be protected by qualified immunity in cases like this, Colorado abolished qualified immunity for law enforcement who violate individuals' rights under state law in 2020. That means this lawsuit is much more likely to succeed—and the cops who terrorized this family are much more likely to be held accountable.
