MIAMI (AP) — Nathaniel LaFleur says he was watching television when someone knocked on his door. Moments later, he said, police were kicking and pistol-whipping him, asking him about drugs.
Metro Sheriff E. Wilson Purdy said LaFleur’s address wasn’t the one listed on a search warrant served by five officers. He said the officers have been assigned to administrative duties pending an investigation.
LaFleur, whose head is bandaged, said when he asked who was at the door Monday, he heard an unfamiliar name.
“I opened the door and there were these policemen standing there pointing a gun that looked like one you use to shoot elephants,” the 48-year-old school teacher said.
“I slammed the door and locked it.”
LaFleur said he ran into his bedroom and dialed the county’s three-digit emergency telephone number.
He said he “told the police that the police were breaking into my house.”
Officers smashed down the front door and broke through the wooden door to the bedroom, LaFleur said, adding that they threw him on the bed, beat him and demanded to know where the drugs were.
He said he wasn’t read his rights or taken to a hospital until police finished searching his northwest Miami home nearly three hours later.
I guess these enforcers did not learn all of the 3Rs (Reading and arriving at the correct address)
Would not be surprised (unfortunately) if no one is reprimanded for their incompetence. We know they will not pay for their error. Paying is left for the public.