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.
→ keep toking
A 70-year-old man was arrested Christmas Eve on charges accusing him of growing a small marijuana garden out of his north Reno apartment. Joseph Fillmore Etter was booked into Washoe County Jail and released Christmas Day on $1,280 bail. He could not be reached for comment.
Authorities removed six marijuana plants that he had allegedly been growing out of his apartment in the 2700 block of Northtowne Lane. Reno police responded to his apartment just before 3 p.m. Friday after someone from inside called 911 and hung up. When a dispatcher tried to call back, the line was busy, and officers were sent to check the resident's welfare.
According to a report, when Etter opened the door for officers, he was holding a knife. Officers said he was acting suspiciously and closed a curtain to shield them from seeing an area off of the living room. The officers could detect a strong odor of marijuana and see a silhouette of plants through the curtain, as well as a bright light over them, the report said. Ultimately, police allegedly found six marijuana plants and marijuana growing equipment.
Authorities estimate that one marijuana plant is worth about $1,000 on the street.
Etter had been alone in the apartment when officers arrived. It was unknown why the 911 call was placed.
He was booked on suspicion of manufacturing and cultivation of marijuana, possession of marijuana and unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia.
source
