Woman Hospitalized Following Botched Raid
http://wsbradio.com ^ Posted on Monday, May 17, 2010 12:46:48 AM by Chet 99
Woman Hospitalized Following Botched Raid
By Jon Lewis @ May 13, 2010 6:52 AM Permalink | Comments (32)
(WSB Radio) An elderly Polk County woman is hospitalized in critical condition after suffering a heart attack when drug agents swarm the wrong house. Machelle Holl tells WSB her 76-year-old mother, Helen Pruett, who lives alone, was at home when nearly a dozen local and federal agents swarmed her house, thinking they were about to arrest suspected drug dealers.
"She was at home and a bang came on the back door and she went to the door and by the time she got to the back door, someone was banging on the front door and then they were banging on her kitchen window saying police, police," said Holl.
Holl says her house was surrounded and she was scared to open the door. When the Polk County Police Chief finally convinced her she was safe, she let them in.
"They never served her with a warrant. At that point, she said the phones were ringing with the other men that were in the yard and they realized that it was the wrong address," said Holl.
Chief Kenny Dodd says they realized the subject they were looking for was not there.
"She made us aware that she was having chest pains and we got her medical attention. I stayed with her and kept her calm and talked with her, monitored her vital signs until the ambulance arrived," said Dodd.
"My mother has had a heart attack. She has had congestive heart failure and she is in ICU at the moment. She is not good condition and her heart is working only 35 percent," said Holl.
Holl admits that her mother has had three heart attacks but has been doing well for the past couple of years. "She was traumatized. Even the doctor said this is what happens when something traumatic happens. He said it's usually like a death in the family or something like that just absolutely scares them half to death, and that is what has happened," said Holl.
Police say they have had her mother's home under surveillance for two years.
Holl says if that's true, how could police get the wrong address?
"We have just found out from a neighbor that they (police) went into some other elderly woman's home who was on oxygen and took her oxygen off of her and scared her half to death," said Holl.
Holl remembers the Kathyrn Johnston, the elderly woman shot to death in a botched drug raid in Atlanta, and thinks thinks this kind of thing happens too often. "They have totally made a really bad mistake. You would think that with the officers and the SWAT team and the DEA they would make sure that all of their I's are dotted, all of their T's are crossed before they go bursting into someone's home like that," said Holl.
Dodd says he has gone to the hospital to check on Pruett and apologize to the family for what has happened.
Police did end up making seven drug arrests relating to the two year investigation, but the DEA is investigating to see how this mix-up happened.
