TBI investigating raid on wrong house in Bradley County; DEA apologizes to family
CLEVELAND, Tenn. — The Drug Enforcement Administration acknowledged it made a mistake when officers raided Spencer Renck’s house on Tuesday morning. The Bradley County Sheriff’s office assisted in the raid, which happened during the search for a murder suspect who was staying at a house next door.
The federal agency says it’s sorry for the mix-up. But, will it pay for any damages?
On Wednesday morning, District Attorney General Scott Crump asked the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to review the incident to see what went wrong.
“Clearly on property issues, the DEA and/or the Bradley County Sheriff’s department is going to liable for that,” said attorney Bill Speek.
He sees a lot of situations like this unfold.
There was severe property damage inside the Rencks home. Door frames are busted, ceilings dented and clothes are ripped.
The family says agents threw flash bangs while four children slept nearby.
But Speek says it could have been much worse.
“That’s why it’s really appalling that you would break in or you would execute a search warrant at the wrong house,” he said.
“The fear is always that someone is going to get killed.”
Spencer Renck was armed because he thought the SWAT team was an intruder.
“They had their guns drawn at me and I had my gun trying to protect my family,” he said.
“I didn’t know what was going on. I was really close to being killed.”
After 20 minutes, Renck said agents realized the problem and found the real suspect next door.
But who will pay for the damage?
We asked both the DEA’s Louisville Division office and the Bradley County Sheriff’s Office.
The Sheriff’s office would not discuss the mix-up. The DEA would only say they “will continue to work with the family to ensure their wellbeing.”
“The right thing for the DEA is to compensate them for the damage they caused because of their negligence,” Speek said.
“Treat them as fairly as they can and move past this almost tragic situation.”
Speek believes full compensation should be resolved within one year. If not, he anticipates the family will file a lawsuit.
In the statement, the DEA also promised to “look into this matter further and take steps to ensure situations such as this never occur again.”
We will keep you posted on what the TBI finds in its investigation.
Filed under: General Problems
The police are horrible when they do a investigation into a crime on how they deal with personal property. I woalked into someone robbing my apartment and ended up being stabbed with one of my kitchen knife (thatnk God I did not have a gun because no doubt he wouod have used it on me) well they rushed me off to the hospital and when I got home after having abdominal surgery one week later my place was a mess. There was black fingerprint dust on every surface in the house. Things that were on tables were thrown on the floor. It took me about 15 hours of clean up and I was not even disabled back then. I think a lot of people are afraid to report a crime because they are worried the cops will come up with some crap to àrrest you on or make your life much worch.