A Black family is living in a surreal nightmare after a SWAT team rammed their door and arrested a father of two for simply trying to defend himself and his children.
Let’s paint the picture.
Corey Joseph Marioneaux Jr., 24, was soundly sleeping in his bed with his two toddlers when Pensacola, Florida Police SWAT officers charged in at 5 AM on Sunday, Feb. 6 to execute a search warrant.
Not knowing what was happening, Marioneaux reached for his licensed and legally registered handgun and fired a shot to defend both himself and his two children, ages 1 and 3.
The warrant was issued in relation to a shooting near downtown Pensacola in January.
"He wasn't a convicted felon, he wasn't a person of interest," Marcus Lett, a relative of Marioneaux, told WEAR-TV, ABC News Channel 3.
Now Marioneaux is facing charges of attempted murder for firing at the officers.
"He's licensed to carry a firearm, they took his weapon," Lett said. "They know he's licensed, so why go through these extremes to press these charges when anyone would've done the same thing to protect our home and our family? We can't stand idly and watch someone that we know -- without a doubt in our minds -- don't deserve what's been given to him. The narrative that has been painted is not this individual."
Pastor LuTimothy May told Channel 3 that Marioneaux has no criminal record and volunteers with the church and local organizations.
"The young man -- once he found out it was the police, he laid down the weapon, he came out with his hands up," Pastor May said. "So that lets you know this isn't an aggressive cop killer that wouldn't do harm to anyone."
Channel 3 reported Friday that according to the Pensacola Police arrest report, SWAT officers reported they knocked and announced their presence for “approximately 10 seconds" before ramming the door and entering the home.
Monday, Pensacola Police updated their statement to read: “Due to the high-risk nature of the incident, SWAT was utilized to serve the search warrant. Members of SWAT knocked and announced their presence and waited approximately 15 seconds before opening the residence’s door.”
According to reporting by Channel 3 the department’s policy clearly says: “Generally, members must wait at least 15 seconds after the onset of knocking and announcing before forcibly entering.”
To add insult to injury, the Pensacola Police Department was forced to open an internal investigation after one of Marioneaux’s children was allegedly injured following the shooting.
Moiya Dixon, the children’s mother, told Channel 3 she received a call just after the shooting telling her that her 1-year-old had been injured.
"I get out my car like, 'Where's my baby? Where's my baby?'" Dixon said. "And I get my baby and I see his face -- and it's almost unrecognizable compared to how he looked when I left him last."
After intense scrutiny from Dixon and her family, Pensacola Police released a statement explaining that during the time the children were in the patrol car, “One of the children was leaning on the door of the car when the investigator opened it to get back in and fell out of the car. The investigator wasn’t aware that the child was leaning on the door. The child was checked by EMS for injuries. Both children were later released to family members.”
Channel 3 reported that emergency services were called out at 6:40 AM for “a hemorrhage and laceration on a toddler” and arrived about six minutes later. The toddler was not taken to the hospital by emergency services but by Dixon, where she requested X-rays and scans.
Police told Channel 3 that there is no video of the shooting as it was explained that SWAT officers don’t wear body cameras for fear of revealing the department’s tactics.
Marioneaux's family says officers confiscated his electronics, as well as footage from security cameras on the home.
The State Attorney's Office will prosecute the case, and Marioneaux is scheduled to make his first court appearance on Feb. 24.
Just a few days prior to the Pensacola Police’s SWAT surprise, Minneapolis police executed a no-knock warrant on a downtown apartment and then in the next nine seconds, proceeded to shoot and kill 22-year-old Amir Locke as he lay wrapped up in a blanket on a couch.
The Washington Post reports that Locke suffered two gunshot wounds to the chest and one to his right wrist. Locke was taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead. In a surprising piece of matter-of-fact honesty, Republican Rob Doar, spokesman for the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus, told the Post: “Mr. Locke did what many of us might do in the same confusing circumstances, he reached for a legal means of self-defense while he sought to understand what was happening.”
Locke’s mother, Karen Wells, is demanding a total ban on no-knock warrants. “We want it banned in the name of Amir Locke so that this doesn't happen to anybody else's child,” Wells told People.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump added that it’s well known that no-knock warrants are distributed and executed disproportionately against people of color.
“It is foreseeable that an innocent person like Amir Locke, like Breonna Taylor, is going to be killed by these police violating the fourth amendment against unreasonable search and seizure. There was no reason they had to serve a no-knock warrant and ask the judge for nighttime service. That is the most dangerous kind of warrant you can execute. You're going to bust in my house and you're going to do it while we're sleeping. Amir's fate was sealed the time they issued that one,” Crump told People.
Related stories:
Family wants answers after 22-year-old Black man, Amir Locke, shot and killed during no-knock raid
Suspect connected to Amir Locke case arrested, mayor announces temporary end to no-knock warrants
Popular Georgia carwash worker shot and killed in case eerily similar to that of Breonna Taylor
