An Ohio family is praying for the recovery of a 17-month-old special-needs toddler who was injured during a botched police raid.
The incident occurred when law enforcement, aiming to apprehend a teenager they suspected of possessing a weapon, targeted a home the suspect didn’t live in anymore.
A police tactical team deployed flash-bang grenades as they executed a warrant at a home in the Cleveland suburb of Elyria on Wednesday, Jan. 10, around 2:15 p.m., and the family says those devices harmed an innocent child with a heart defect.
Courtney Price, 25, and her son, Waylon May, were visiting from Kentucky with her aunt, Reida Jennings, when the officers raided the home. The family claims the police busted into the Parmely Avenue home with force without checking to see if the suspect, who does not live in the home, was there and added that the incident was captured by the household’s surveillance camera.
Baby Waylon was sitting in his swing when allegedly dozens of members of the Special Response Team knocked down the door after tossing in the grenades.
“The baby is now in the ICU. He’s got burns all over him, inside of his lungs are burned,” said Jennings in an interview with FOX 8. “He’s already a special-needs baby. He’s a trach baby. He was on his ventilator, they let the baby lay there for about 35 to 45 minutes in the smoke.”
The family wants the police to take accountability and explain what exactly happened.
The police, who insist they were conducting a search for a teenager facing weapon charges as part of an ongoing investigation, said they deployed two flash-bangs outside the residence. The authorities categorically deny any allegations of the toddler’s exposure to chemical agents, negligence, or a lack of medical attention.
Police noted that the Elyria Police detectives, Elyria Fire paramedics, and the mother assessed the condition of the child at the time, and at the time, he did not need any serious medical attention or had injuries.
Lt. Gerald Lantz, a public information officer for the department, said the unit had a warrant for the raid.
Jennings is outraged by this assertion and further explains her account of what happened to the media.
“As they are banging on the door, they throw the flash bang through the window and it goes over top of here and hits the baby. The baby is covered in glass,” the aunt details.
According to the police, the boy was taken to the hospital due to a pre-existing illness unrelated to the tactical operation.
Price, according to the police report, did not have a car seat, so Lifecare Ambulance was called to the scene. Once there, they assessed the child and transported him to the hospital, where he was later discharged on the same day.
Price said while that is true, her son had to be urgently readmitted to the hospital the following day due to low blood oxygen levels.
After the incident, Jennings spoke to her landlord of approximately one year and believes that the teen the police were looking for was a previous tenant in the home.
“They were looking for I think a teenager, to my knowledge. … When they told me the name of the boy, it sounded familiar because they had been here five times the past year looking for that family and that boy,” Jennings said.
Jennings, who is white, also believes there was a racial element to the raid that came out when the police came into their home.
“When they entered the door, they seen mine and my husband’s picture on the wall,” said Jennings. “My husband’s Black and they had the picture of the boy and he’s a black boy and he said, ‘Well, they have to be related.’”
Price said her child had to be hospitalized after the incident. She said the police were rude to her, even placing her in handcuffs.
“I kept screaming, ‘my baby, my baby! He’s on a ventilator, my baby’s in the house!’ They told me don’t worry about my baby,” the mother recalled.
She explained that the child has chemical pneumonitis, which involves inflammation and irritation of the lungs.
The aunt and the mother want to know why the officers were so careless with the raid and want accountability. Since the incident, the child is said to have stopped breathing.
“He was awaiting open heart surgery, that’s why he’s here. That’s why he’s at my house,” the aunt said, adding, “She’s been here one week. They have taken 17 months of what this baby has fought to be where he’s at, and now he’s back at square one.”
Lantz also said that more information will be released as the investigation unfolds.
