Worcester SWAT Team Raids Wrong House, Terrifies Family

Swat team photo by matthrono via Flickr/Creative Commons

It’s a scene we have seen over and over again in America in recent years: police officers kicking in the door of the wrong house with a warrant in hand while outfitted in so much tactical gear they resemble commandos. This time, it happened in Worcester.

The apartment belonging to Bryant Alequin and Marianne Diazand was raided by police on Wednesday in a morning raid that, by all accounts, terrorized the family.

WBZ reported the family feared for their lives when state troopers and officers from Worcester entered their apartment with guns drawn, looking for a man that does not live there.

“It was terrorizing, and the worst thing I’ve ever been through in my life. They were loud, vulgar, and disgusting in behavior,” said Dianzand to WBZ.

Alequin reported that police not only roughed him up as he was getting ready to go to work but forcibly handcuffed Dianzand while she was naked in front of her two daughters, ages seven and 18 months. Dianzand was frisked by a female officer and left naked for over ten minutes while officers determined if they were in the correct apartment.

According to the Boston Globe, the raid was in error as they were looking for Shane B. Jackson Jr., who was the subject of a raid in the apartment nearly a year ago. Alequin and Dianzan said they had never heard of Jackson, 36, until the raid last week. Police said they were tipped off that Jackson was living in the apartment by a “confidential informant.”

Jackson has a lengthy criminal record, but Dianzan and Alequin do not have any record to speak of.

To top it all off, the Worcester Telegram and Gazette reported that Jackson was arrested earlier this month for theft. When he was arrested police verified his current address as one very different from the home they raided last week. The address in his arrest paperwork happens to be the house he has listed at recent court dates, too.

Law enforcement officials are standing by their actions though.

“The search warrant was executed based on the best intelligence at the time. He (the target) had been in the dwelling in the days before the execution of the search warrant,” said Worcester District Attorney Joseph Early in a statement.

The family strongly disagrees with Early’s description of events.

It’s not clear if the family will file a lawsuit but right now all they want is an apology and an explanation for why it happened, said family attorney Hector Pineiro.