Family says toddler hospitalized after Elyria police raid home in mistaken identity case
ELYRIA, Ohio (WJW) – A family said Elyria police raided their home in a case of mistaken identity and injured a 17-month-old toddler born with severe health complications.
“The baby is now in the ICU. He’s got burns all over him, inside of his lungs are burned,” said Reida Jennings, who rents the home raided by police. “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.”
The raid was conducted Wednesday afternoon on Parmely Avenue in Elyria.
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Jennings said she was at work when she saw the doorbell video of the police raid on her house. She instantly feared for her niece and her niece’s son, who are staying at the home while the boy awaits an anticipated surgery for a heart defect.
“As they are banging on the door, they throw the flash bang through the window and it goes over top of here and hits the baby. The baby is covered in glass,” said Jennings.
In a press release, Elyria police said the warrant and subsequent raid by the Elyria Police Special Response Team is part of an ongoing criminal investigation. Police said two flash-bangs were deployed outside of the residence. Any allegations, police said, of the toddler’s exposure to chemical agents, negligence or lack of medical attention is false.
The person police were searching for does not live at the home, according to Jennings, who moved in nearly one year ago with her husband.
After talking to the owner of the home, they believe the person police were trying to arrest is a previous tenant of a previous owner of the home.
“They were looking for I think a teenager, to my knowledge… 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 said.
A public information officer for the department, Lt. Gerald Lantz, said in a press release the investigation that led to the affidavit to obtain a search warrant for the home remains ongoing and additional information will be released as the investigation progresses.
“When they entered the door, they seen mine and my husband’s picture on the wall,” said Jennings, who is white. “My husband’s Black and they had the picture of the boy and he’s a black boy and he said, ‘well, they have to be related.'”
Courtney Price, the toddler’s mother, spoke with FOX 8 about the incident outside the children’s hospital where she says he is a patient. Price described being handcuffed, taken outside of the home while pleading with officers to help her son.
“I kept screaming, ‘my baby, my baby! He’s on a ventilator, my baby’s in the house!'” said Price. “They told me don’t worry about my baby.”
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Price said her son, born premature at just one pound two ounces, made significant strides since his birth. Now, she said, he has chemical burns among other complications as a result of the police raid.
“He has chemical pneumonitis which is inflammation of the lungs and irritation of the lungs and the soft tissue around the lungs,” said Price.
Price and Jennings said they want accountability and an explanation about why the house was raided.
“The house, it doesn’t matter about the house, it’s the baby. Yesterday he quit breathing. He was awaiting open heart surgery, that’s why he’s here. That’s why he’s at my house. She’s from Pikeville, Kentucky. She’s been here one week. They have taken 17 months of what this baby has fought to be where he’s at and now he’s back at square one.”
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