Man describes police raid at wrong home

By RACHEL MCCRARY, STEPHEN BOROWY

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    FLINT, MI (WNEM) — A Flint man says his home was raided by police by mistake.

“It’s just unacceptable,” said Aaron Dunigan.

Dunigan is outraged, saying his family suffered traumatic stress when Michigan State Police raided the wrong house where his mother and other family members lived.

“Do I not matter? Do my family not matter, you know, and you were thinking about this my niece said she didn’t know if she was going to die,” Dunigan said.

Dunigan is describing the incident that happened in April. He alleges MSP, including a SWAT team, burst through the front door, located on Garland Street in Flint, and held his 56-year-old mother, her 28-year-old daughter, and the daughter’s three kids at gunpoint for almost an hour.

“The police wouldn’t let them ask for the phone,” Dunigan said. “They told him they couldn’t answer the phones or make any phone calls. They were held at gunpoint. My nieces and nephews are 14, 10, and 3 years old and they held them at gunpoint. At some point during this raid, they kicked in the door. They didn’t announce themselves, they’ve, they came in with lasers, full tactical gear.”

The family’s attorney says they want justice.

“Because we believe that this happened due to sloppiness on their part, and that sloppiness, I think, was an artifact of deliberate racial bias in terms of this community as opposed to other communities,” Bill Goodman said. “This would never have happened in a white middle class or wealthy community, never.”

Goodman and Dunigan said this was a no-knock warrant and police even caused damage to the door.

Michigan State Police responding to the incident with the following statement:

“Police executed a search warrant related to a homicide investigation at a home on Garland Street. The search warrant was based in part upon information provided by an informant. Officers announced their presence at least twice prior to making entry into the residence.

Subsequent to the execution of the search warrant, officers determined the informant knowingly provided false information to investigators. A request for criminal charges against this subject for providing false information to law enforcement will be forthcoming. The MSP has apologized to the family and immediately began to work with both the landlord and the renters to remedy the situation, which included paying for repairs to the front door, which was damaged during entry.

Additionally, members of the MSP have met with the family and their attorneys to discuss what occurred and to answer their questions. Many of the other allegations being made are not accurate, nor are they reflective of the policies and procedures of the MSP relating to the execution of search warrants.”

Dunigan is asking for a federal investigation into the matter and believes his family should be compensated for the trauma.

“That just didn’t have to be, it just did not have to be,” Dunigan said.

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