North Carolina homeowner Vera McGriff was able to get some video of Durham police officers entering her home and attacking, then detaining all of the adults in the home. Why? Eight officers were stopping by the house for a “knock and talk.” Durham police apparently suspected someone in the home of selling drugs and they didn’t have a search warrant so they used a “knock and talk”—they basically ask the resident if they can search the home and ask questions. Vera McGriff told them they could not search the home and that’s when a group of five police officers broke through the door and all hell broke loose:
“I told the officer, No you cannot come in my house without a search warrant. The officer put his foot at the bottom of the door and four of them bum rushed me …”
After barging in without a warrant, Durham police claimed two of their officers were assaulted, but McGriff and the video tell a different story.
“Everybody was tased, one officer hit my son in the face with his Glock 9, we were choked, kicked, thrown down on the floor,” McGriff stated, according to Opposing Views.
The video (seen below) does not appear to show anyone attacking the police officers. It does show residents being extremely upset the police officers barged into the home under the guise of having smelled marijuana. More details from Indy Week:
"We were subject to the physical assault and terrorizing actions from a gang of police officers that included assaults with batons, an officer's gun, tasing and over four hours of handcuffed detainment," McGriff says. "All the while my elementary school aged children watched these vicious attacks."
McGriff continues: "When they seized my home and we lay tased, swollen, bruised, cuffed and helpless on the floor, it felt like I was surrounded by an unruly gang that meant me and my family nothing but harm. The terror, by these officers, did not stop when my 11 year old son, recently home from the hospital, began to vomit and seize. Nor did they stop when my 10 year old daughter screamed and called out to her mommy in fear. They did not care about any of us as human beings.”
McGriff is demanding a thorough investigation of the incident "using a racial equity lens"; the disbanding of the HEAT unit, which a recent report found to engage in patterns of racial profiling; and the immediate termination of the five officers who "forced their way into my home and terrorized my family.”
A representative from the Durham Police Department says one of the residents tried to go for an officer’s gun:
One of the people in the house, Khadir Cherry, tried to grab an officer’s weapon and refused to obey lawful orders, Glenn says. Another, Raynell Hall, struck an officer in the shoulder, according to Glenn.
"In order to execute the arrests during this volatile scene, officers’ deployed a Taser on Mr. Hall and an officer struck Mr. Cherry with a baton in the area between the hip and knee," Glenn says.
Cherry was arrested and charged with two counts of possession with intent to manufacture, sell and/or distribute; maintaining a dwelling; two counts of assault on a government official; resisting a public officer; and possession of marijuana paraphernalia.
Hall was charged with assault on a government official and resisting a public officer. Another person in the home, Jahmon Cedeno was also arrested and charged with assault on a government official. McGriff, the homeowner, was charged with maintaining a dwelling and resisting a public officer.
Three adults arrested for assaulting two of the police officers who burst into the home without a search warrant. One of them arrested for marijuana paraphernalia. See what’s missing from those charges? Possession of marijuana. Because apparently after bursting into their home and handcuffing the occupants for hours, based on their own claims of the smell of marijuana, no marijuana was found in the house.
It remains unclear who exactly was being served and protected in this case. As noted by Indy Week, the very same police unit that raided this home was recently found to disproportionately arrest minorities.