A mother claims that her 17-month-old son Waylon (left) was injured when cops deployed flash-bangs at the home they were inside of in Elyria, Ohio (Pictures: Facebook/Courtney Paige)
Police allegedly raided the wrong home and threw flash-bang stun grenades that injured a 17-month-old boy with special needs and awaiting open heart surgery.
Courtney Price claims that cops broke the window of an Ohio home they were staying in and deployed flash-bangs near her son Waylon, who was on a ventilator.
‘All I seen was lights flashing and smoke coming into the house. I didn’t know what to do because there was guns pointed at me,’ Prince told CBS News of the incident last Wednesday afternoon.
‘I wanted to run to him, but I knew if I ran to him… they could’ve shot.’
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Price said cops took her outside and handcuffed her.
‘I kept screaming, “My baby, my baby is on a ventilator. My baby’s in here,”‘ she said.
Price said her son was covered in glass and smoke and treated at a hospital for burns.
‘His diagnosis is chemical pneumonitis from the chemicals in the flash-bang,’ she said.
But the Elyria Police Department stated that officers used ‘two diversionary devices commonly known as “flash-bangs” that produce sound and light and ‘are intended to distract the suspects attention’.
‘Diversionary devices do not produce a continuous burn and they do not deploy or contain any pepper gas or chemical agents,’ the police department stated on Friday.
‘Elyria Police Detectives, Elyria Fire Paramedics and the mother assessed the condition of the child, confirming that the child did not sustain any apparent, visible injuries.’
The mother told detectives that she planned to take her son to a hospital for his ‘pre-existing illness unrelated to the tactical operation’ but did not have a car seat for transportation, according to the police department. Detectives called an ambulance, which took the child to a hospital.
‘Any allegation suggesting the child was exposed to chemical agents, lack of medical attention or negligence is not true,’ the police department stated.
Detectives had obtained a search warrant for the home at 331 Parmely Avenue in Elyria for an ongoing criminal investigation. They executed it at the correct address, said the police department.
Reida Jennings, who rents the home and was away at work while her niece Price and Waylon were visiting in anticipation of his surgery, said detectives were looking for an individual who does not live there. Jennings said she spoke to the homeowner and believes cops were trying to arrest a previous tenant or owner.
‘They were looking for I think a teenager, to my knowledge,’ Jennings told FOX 8. ‘When they told me the name of the boy, it sounded familiar because they had been here five times the past year looking for that family and that boy.’
Jennings added that Waylon is in the intensive care unit after the ordeal.
‘He’s got burns all over him, inside of his lungs are burned,’ she said. ‘He’s already a special-needs baby. He’s a trach baby. He was on his ventilator, they let the baby lay there for about 35 to 45 minutes in the smoke.’
Ring camera captured the moment that cops broke through the door.
Mayor Kevin Brubaker called the allegations against the police department ‘extreme and deeply concerning’.
‘I have ordered a complete review of the incident,’ he said, ‘And requested all information be released to the public as soon as possible.’
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A mother claims cops broke into an Ohio home and deployed flash-bangs that injured her 17-month-old son on a ventilator.