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Dead Constitution See other Dead Constitution Articles Title: Spring Valley family says police raided the wrong house By Jane Lerner • jlerner@lohud.com • January 14, 2011 SPRING VALLEY — David McKay and his wife, 13-year-old daughter, brother-in-law and two dogs were sleeping early Thursday morning when they heard banging on their front door. Thinking a neighbor needed help, McKay and his wife, Jamie, ran down the stairs of their townhouse at 36 Sharon Drive and opened the door. No one in the family was prepared for what they said happened next. McKay said his family was terrorized by police who were slow to realize they were targeting the wrong house. Authorities admit that they were at the McKays' home as part of a series of drug raids in Spring Valley, Mount Vernon, the Bronx, northern New Jersey, the Albany area and Pennsylvania. But they dispute the family's account, insisting they were briefly in the McKays' home looking for information. The family said that at least eight police officers — their weapons drawn — barged into the house and pointed guns at the family and threaten ed to shoot their dogs. "Their guns were drawn. They were screaming, 'Where's Michael? Where's Michael?' " McKay recounted hours later. "I'm trying to tell them there's no one named Michael here." McKay said he tried to explain that his daughter was sleeping in an upstairs bedroom, but the officers ran up the stairs anyway. He said they pulled the eighth-grader out of her bed at gunpoint and dragged her down the stairs. "I was so scared I thought I was going to have a heart attack," Destinee McKay, a middle school student, said. The officers then separated David McKay from his family. "They pull me outside in the freezing cold in my underwear, manhandle my wife, point a gun at my daughter, and they won't even tell me what they are doing in my house," McKay said. "It was terrifying and humiliating beyond belief." McKay, who has worked for the Rockland sewer department for more than 13 years, is also a foster parent and involved in community activities. He said he recognized some of the officers as being Spring Valley cops from his work in the community. Spring Valley police referred all questions to the federal Drug Enforcement Administration. DEA spokeswoman Erin Mulvey said the officers were on the street as part of a raid that resulted in the arrest of 26 people they suspect of being involved in a drug ring that brought marijuana from the West Coast to the East Coast. One of the 26 people arrested lives at 46 Sharon Drive, Mulvey said. Mulvey confirmed that officers went to McKay's home at 36 Sharon Drive but said it was a "knock and talk." The family willingly let police into the home so no warrant was needed, she said. "They approached them and interviewed them," Mulvey said. Officers then realized that the person they were looking for was at 46 Sharon Drive, she said. Officers were armed, but their weapons were not drawn while they were in the McKay home, she said. She could not fully explain why they would go to 36 Sharon Drive if they knew the person they were looking for was at a different address. David McKay said the DEA's version of events is "baloney." "They just don't want to admit that they made a mistake," he said. He pointed out that his family has owned its home since 1998. He and his brother-in-law are listed in public records as the owners. "You go barging into someone's home with guns and pull them out of their bed, you better make sure you have all your i's ... dotted and your t's crossed," McKay said. Both McKay and his wife have taken in foster children. As part of that process to qualify , they submitted to intense background checks, including fingerprints. "We're not hiding anything," he said. "All they had to do was look, and they could have realized that we were not the people they were looking for." McKay said police showed him a picture of the man they wanted — someone he did not recognize. When the police were preparing to leave, McKay and his bewildered family asked them again what they were doing and why they entered the house. "They wouldn't say," he recalled. "All they would say was, 'You'll read about it in the paper tomorrow.' " Destinee McKay was so upset that she vomited, had an asthma attack and fainted. Her parents took her to Nyack Hospital, where she was treated and released. McKay said his family is shaken and he wants an explanation and an apology from police. He's haunted by the thought that his family was in danger. "Here I am, a 320-pound guy," he said. "I couldn't even protect my family in my own home."
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#2. To: farmfriend (#0)
Fund your weapons as much as your fund your food, and things will go better on both counts, my man.
#5. To: Lod (#2)
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