A Galveston police SWAT team raided the wrong home while looking for a teenager who turned out to be falsely accused of murder.
The January 22 raid occurred just before 2 a.m. and reportedly caused more than $5,000 in damage, homeowner Erika Rios told The Daily News. Rios alleged police dragged her out of her home while her teenage son, daughter, and a visiting friend were injured and traumatized.
The SWAT team shattered windows, broke down a door, tore out wiring, and fired 15 “flashbangs,” Rios said.
“I literally kept asking my son, ‘What is going on? What is going on?’ I had no idea,” Rios told Fox 26 Houston. “And he’s like, ‘Mom, I don’t know, I don’t know.’ We were just in a panic.”
Rios added that her daughter Chelsea was put in the back of a police car.
“I was in there for a couple minutes,” Chelsea said. “I was still having anxiety attacks, and I needed to throw up. They let me step out, and they then told me they were only looking for Cameron, nothing else.”
Police were looking for Cameron Vargas, 17, who had an arrest warrant for his alleged involvement in the January 20 shooting death of Malik Dunn, 25. However, Vargas was not at the home when SWAT executed the raid.
Vargas’ father said his son had left Rios’ home about two hours before the raid and walked half a block back to his house.
Vargas’ warrant was based on an “eyewitness” statement. He turned himself in the day after the raid and was held on a $250,000 bond.
Two days later, the charges against him were dropped, and no other arrests have been made in Dunn’s murder.
“We are completely disappointed in our police department and in their investigative process,” said Terry Borrell, Vargas’ mother, in a statement provided to Fox 26. “This has been a traumatizing experience that no one should ever go through. We are glad our son’s innocence was proven, but he should have not spent one second in jail. Cameron is an amazing and respectful young man and did not deserve to be slandered and wrongfully accused or even seen as a suspect.”
“The police wasted valuable time and resources on the wrong person,” she continued. “I hope that for the victims sake, and his family, they find the real murderer and go after the real criminals who lied to police and wrongfully accused my son.”
Galveston Police Chief Doug Balli is on a 10-day administrative leave, and the police department is conducting an internal investigation, City Manager Brian Maxwell said Saturday.
The City of Galveston is also conducting a separate investigation into how the raid was allowed to happen.
“There was a major breakdown in communication and we want to figure out why the city was not in the loop,” Maxwell said. “This decision was solely based on the lack of communication and not related to the raid.”
“We need to figure out if the communication lapse was just a lack of oversight or whether there was intent, which I do not believe to be the case,” Maxwell added. “I am a stickler for communication and I do not appreciate being kept out of the loop.”
Maxwell, Mayor Craig Brown, and Councilman Michael Bouvier, who represents District 4, where the raid took place, said they were unaware the operation was going to happen.
Assistant Chief Andre Mitchell is serving as police chief in the interim while Balli is on leave, said Maxwell, adding that he hopes to reinstate Balli before his 10-day suspension ends. However, this will depend on how long the investigation takes to complete.
“We believe this decision is best for both the chief and the city in order to not taint the investigation,” Maxwell said. “We want to get to the bottom of this and make sure it does not happen again.”
According to Maxwell, the city’s insurance would cover the cost of Rios’ damages, but she would need to fill out forms and speak with the city’s risk manager to get reimbursed.
The Galveston thugs who executed this raid probably enjoyed every minute of it. In Dallas we will soon see SWAT raids on people using gas mowers as the murder rate soars. Your worthless city government and council at work.
And Texas continues to give not only police blackeyes but America black eyes.
I’m a middle aged white male that was profiled by a black female detective at the Dallas police HQ to pay my respects to four fallen officers in the line of duty during a peaceful gathering set up by Dallas PD.
I have suffered the abuses of police all.my life but never anything like what I did there simply for being a bald white male. Nothing more. I’ll never trust police in Texas again nor will I likely trust police period bc of everything I’ve encountered and what keeps happening. It’s sad the few bad police make.it worse for all the police and society as well.
Police are supposed to serve and protect. They not supposed to be incompetent racist sexit bigots that abuse their powers simply bc they can!
With the defund the police movement, we have list the best officers who decided not to be a policeman anymore. It’s a known fact that recruiting new officers has been difficult and in many cases have lowered their standards just to attempt to meet quotas. This means that all officers from top to bottom of the hierarchy are less qualified. These types of “mistakes” will increase. The military is doing this and colleges are also. Mostly in the name of equity. It used to be call equality. God help us if we have to fight a war against China in 2025 like many are predicting. I predict China will start a war before Biden leaves office , especially if they believe a republican will win in 2024. This is what happens when democrats are in charge.
Incompetence has nothing to do with the “Defund the Police” movement as you call it which is a figment of the Conservative imagination. To raid a house looking for a suspect whom you haven’t verified as present at 2 am is a recipe for disaster. Did they know innocent people may be present? Were they anticipating a shootout? 15 flash bangs? Breaking windows. Did they announce who they were? This could have resulted in the deaths of innocent people, and Police Officers both. Now comes the lawsuit.
After reading the entire article, it wasn’t the wrong house raided. The suspect was there two hours earlier.
If nothing else this demonstrates what happens to tax dollars in poorly run cities. Police are not perfect but they need to get closer to heroic than tearing up the wrong house.
Police Chief Vernon Hale was a good guy. Galveston should have done whatever it took to keep him. Doug Balli is a complete embarrassment to law enforcement.