BILLINGS A 12-year-old girl suffered burns to one side of her body when a flash grenade went off next to her as a police SWAT team raided a West End home Tuesday morning.
"She has first- and second-degree burns down the left side of her body and on her arms," said the girl's mother, Jackie Fasching. "She's got severe pain. Every time I think about it, it brings tears to my eyes."
Medical staff at the scene tended to the girl afterward and then her mother drove her to the hospital, where she was treated and released later that day.
A photo of the girl provided by Fasching to The Gazette shows red and black burns on her side.
Police Chief Rich St. John said the 6 a.m. raid at 2128 Custer Ave., was to execute a search warrant as part of an ongoing narcotics investigation by the City-County Special Investigations Unit.
The grenade is commonly called a "flash-bang" and is used to disorient people with a bright flash, a loud bang and a concussive blast. It went off on the floor where the girl was sleeping. She was in her sister's bedroom near the window the grenade came through, Fasching said.
A SWAT member attached it to a boomstick, a metal pole that detonates the grenade, and stuck it through the bedroom window. St. John said the grenade normally stays on the boomstick so it goes off in a controlled manner at a higher level.
However, the officer didn't realize that there was a delay on the grenade when he tried to detonate it. He dropped it to move onto a new device, St. John said. The grenade fell to the floor and went off near the girl.
"It was totally unforeseen, totally unplanned and extremely regrettable," St. John said. "We certainly did not want a juvenile, or anyone else for that matter, to get injured."
On Thursday, Fasching took her daughter back to the hospital to have her wounds treated.
She questioned why police would take such actions with children in the home and why it needed a SWAT team.
"A simple knock on the door and I would've let them in," she said. "They said their intel told them there was a meth lab at our house. If they would've checked, they would've known there's not."
She and her two daughters and her husband were home at the time of the raid. She said her husband, who suffers from congenital heart disease and liver failure, told officers he would open the front door as the raid began and was opening it as they knocked it down.
When the grenade went off in the room, it left a large bowl-shaped dent in the wall and "blew the nails out of the drywall," Fasching said.
St. John said investigators did plenty of homework on the residence before deciding to launch the raid but didn't know children were inside.
"The information that we had did not have any juveniles in the house and did not have any juveniles in the room," he said. "We generally do not introduce these disorienting devices when they're present."
The decision to use a SWAT team was based on a detailed checklist the department uses when serving warrants.
Investigators consider dozens of items such as residents' past criminal convictions, other criminal history, mental illness and previous interactions with law enforcement.
Each item is assigned a point value and if the total exceeds a certain threshold, SWAT is requested. Then a commander approves or rejects the request.
In Tuesday's raid, the points exceeded the threshold and investigators called in SWAT.
"Every bit of information and intelligence that we have comes together and we determine what kind of risk is there," St. John said. "The warrant was based on some hard evidence and everything we knew at the time."
But Fasching said the risk wasn't there and the entry created, for her and her daughters, a sense of fear they can't shake.
"I'm going to have to take them to counseling," she said. "They're never going to get over that."
A claims process has already been started with the city. St. John said it's not an overnight process, but it does determine if the Police Department needs to make restitution.
"If we're wrong or made a mistake, then we're going to take care of it," he said. "But if it determines we're not, then we'll go with that. When we do this, we want to ensure the safety of not only the officers, but the residents inside."
No arrests were made during the raid and no charges have been filed, although a police spokesman said afterward that some evidence was recovered during the search. St. John declined to release specifics of the drug case, citing the active investigation, but did say that "activity was significant enough where our drug unit requested a search warrant."
Fasching said she's considering legal action but, for now, is more concerned about her daughters.
"I would like to see whoever threw those grenades in my daughter's room be reprimanded," she said. "If anybody else did that it would be aggravated assault. I just want to see that the city is held accountable for what they did to my children."
(54) comments
I couldn't be more pleased with the comments here. I am so sorry for this child, because the mental scares will stay forever. My great grandfather was a Wild West Lawman in Montana in the late 1880's early 90's. His life was spared by an outlaw simply for the fact, the outlaw said, that he was fair and just. (Grandpa was staring down a barrel during a jail break where another officer was shot) I know America is a police state. I always hold hope that Montana will remain different. But it's part of the US, unfortunately. The last great place is not just about the glorious nature. It's about values. Please keep fighting for what is right.
These so called protectors must take there training with the U.S Department of justice. Eric Holter and his Fast and furyous, was a training program. Has it come to the point we have to protect ourselves against the incompitent thugs we pay to protect us? Heads had better roll over this.
Should you really be calling someone incompetent when you don't even know how to spell it?
Should a swat team member be using a grenade that he doesn't know what kind of detonation it has? Old farmers words did not burn a child. His did. BIG BIG BIG difference!
Not only that, but they seriously decided it was wise to throw grenades into a house that they suspect has a meth lab, entities that are notorious for their combustibility? Sounds to me like they actually wanted to burn up everyone inside.
The police are no longer human.
Who was the investigating officer? Who reported the home as a meth lab? Start prosecuting there! Where does the buck stop? Is it time to answer the door with a gun in hand?
1. Police Chief Rich St. John should be fired. And I mean today. Don't even allow him the cowards way out of resigning (though I would accept the cowards way out of handing him his service pistol and one bullet). This botched raid and injury of a child only demonstrates that he lacks the skill to train and properly control his brute squad. It is sickening!
2. The cop who bombed the child should be prosecuted, convicted and imprisoned. I'm sure he will meet some old friends there that will be glad to teach him what it's like to be on the receiving end of terror. A lesson he certainly needs.
3. The victim should file suit and win. Normally I don't like my tax dollars paying out huge lawsuits to people but in this case it is deserved. That poor little girl suffered intense emotional and physical injury and deserves to be compensated.
For the people we pay to protect us terrorize and injure a child in this was is reprehensible.
Well Put!
This has got to be the STUPIDEST police action ever!
EVER!
A. Using a grenade in a suspected meth lab could have endangered the whole neighborhood!
B. Police "research" didn't bother to notice the two young girls living there. OOps!
C. Their father was opening the door for the police just as one officer lobs in a grenade!
GOOD GRIEF!!
Sounds like the Billings police dept. is hiring a lot of ex-military people fresh back from Afghanistan!
Guess everything is a war to police today and people are just statistics!
What kind of idiot throws a grenade of any kind into a house that is supposedly a METH LAB?!?!
Clearly they knew this was not a meth lab. They could not possibly be that dumb!
Why do we even have a war on drugs in Montana? What a waste of money and lives.
President Clinton's Justice Department did this through the ATF. Killed 80 people at Waco Texas.
What people need to ask of our government is WHY......WHY do we have the ATF?
They have immunity (license) to kill.
They walk all over state law and seem to have their own version of federal law.
They can and will kill, destroy and burn anything they want to.
SWAT is nearly the same, but they do not have the same omnibus authority the ATF has. As we see here......they are out of control and a menace.
Say?
Wasn't it a quaint practice of the Brownshirts to do their raids at night?
The yellowbelly swat thug must be identified and sued into the next century!!!!!!!!!
Ah yes...the WAR on drugs...
How quaint.
Police intelligence is really a contradiction in terms.
This story is an urgent call that prohibition has to end.
This has gone way too far if police can raid a family home in a manner you expect of a raid on a Taliban cell.
To support prohibition you have to be either ignorant, stupid, brainwashed, insane or corrupt and this story is the clearest proof of that.
Absolutely...
True cops who respect, protect and serve the public and the constitution while being willing to put their lives on the line are heroes.
Those who are so afraid of confrontation that they are willing to bomb civilians other than take the chance of knocking on the door with a warrant, guns, armored vests on, and lots of backup are MEOW cops. Brave up Police Chief Rich St. John and show that you and your cops are heroes and not MEOW cops. Stop using bombs to do what should be done with bravery and civility and proper police work.
Fire all Billings MEOW cops and their police chief too, or you may be bombed next if you have too many secret points in your secret police file as these victims had.
Jim McGraw.
Using a flash grenade in a suspected meth lab house to execute a search warrant, regardless of whether they knew children were in the home, is just plain ludicrous! SWAT used for public/officer's safety? Yeah, right! Meth lab blows up, officer's and neighborhood gets blown up because of safety procedures. The ultimate person responsible is the Chief of the police and the head of SWAT. Evidently neither has the education and training to be in those positions. Furthermore, had all of the other officers been trained properly, they would've known also not to use a flash grenade. Being ex-LE myself, I see the Billings P.D. as complete idiots. What is wrong with today's LE in America? From top down in the chain of command, all are responsible for this blunder. There isn't any excuse for this, because if there were, than a meth lab and drugs would have been found, and no children would have been proven present in the home, and especially NO Flash grenade would've been used. Disciplinary action should start at the top down, and the family should be justly compensated for being victims of Billings P.D.'s ignorance. Let this be a lesson for all law enforcement agencies through out this country.
This is the reason we have a 4th amendment. These jack booted, goose stepping nazi thugs we call law enforcement (and NO I will not appologize for using that phrase) need to be held acountable for treason. Yes to violate the Constitution is treason and the 4th amendendment clearly states how search warrants are to be served.
If law enforcement is so afraid for their lives if they properly serve a search warrant then they need to get out of the job. If there is any law enforcement who are sitting by silently and not publicly speaking out over this, your guilty of aiding them with your silence.
NO arrest, NO charges and yet they use this amount of force. This is why there needs to be a citizens group to arrest, bring to trial and serve punishment to our "law enforcement personel". They are not above the lawful (not legal BS) confines of the Constitution and no where in the Constitution does it say they get to act this way.
Its time they start answering for their crime with their very freedom. NOT the insurance money from a settlement. Ever officer involved in this crime, and yes it is a crime what they did, should spend the rest of their lives in jail doing hard labor to repay the life time of damage they did to this family and children.
DEMAND THEIR ARREST!!!!
You know...they could always come to the target home
DURING THE DAY TIME!!!
But no. They would prefer to do their RAIDS at NIGHT.
We have to AMPLIFY THE TERROR as much as possible.
Don't we?
The first myth that needs to be dispelled is that police are in our communities to protect, and to serve. The fact that they might inadvertently accomplish one of those tasks occasionally does not negate the suffering they inflict on us in the process. What you need to know is that your grandmother stands as good a chance of being tasered for questioning the authority of a cop who pulls her over for having an expired registration sticker, as a wacked out drug addict on PCP running through a shopping mall naked with a butcher knife in his hand. And, while police apprehending criminals in the act of committing a crime is a popular theme in TV crime shows, the chances of it happening in real life are about as remote as Ahmadinejad singing Christmas carols on the white house lawn. Let’s face it, a guy could make a pretty good living by selling the yellow tape police put up, AFTER, a crime has taken place.
So, for the useful purpose they actually serve such as monitoring traffic, crime investigation, and arresting drunks; do they really need flash-bangs, automatic weapons, and high powered stun guns?
To the two stupid people that made the comments defending the police:
(Walter12, vocmar75) You are both completely retarded or you are cops; or both :)
The fact that you would comment like that tells us that you didn't even read the whole article. There is a part that says that no charges were filed, so either they got rid of their lab,or they are freaking innocent. I hate even wasting my time on worthless scum like you, but what goes around comes around, and you will get yours one day. Have a nice life being law-abiding sheeple. Go play on some active train tracks
I say they should play marbles on the Freeway.
No. 1) did St John imply that the home was researched? But never discovered there were children? Some research!
No. 2) why would you use this grenade on a (hearsay) meth lab? You wouldn't, this was done for other reasons, no fool would do this unless there was a hidden agenda.
No. 3) No met lab was found. Drugs yes, but have you seen the amount of drugs given to someone in the state of health the husband has to take due to poor and failing health?
No. 4) excessive force that scared a child for life, if no physically, mentally!
No. 5) These men should be held accountable for having the IQ of a carrot!
Here we go again and blame the police, what about the scum having a little girl live in that drug infested squalor, huh? What about the drugee adults? What about the crime and narcotics and trouble this scum causes?
Tussing was a clown manager...that we paid a quarter million to get rid of...RSJ couldn't manage birdseed for a coo-coo clock either. I had to watch him last night roaming the sidelines as defensive coordinator for the varsity football team...a total joke.Wouldn't you think he has a little more important things to do? Walter this is about a failed manager that needs to ride off into the sunset. If he wants to coach football...then fine..GO DO IT FULL-TIME !!! Drug infested squalor? Your making this comment based on what? Z
@walter12...no drugs in house...no meth lab in house...
Cops failed to figure out the house had children in it...even after they did their homework.
YOU are a prime candidate for COP training.
Imagine what would have happened had they not done their "homework". There would be nothing left of the neighborhood. Sounds like the SWAT team is extremely inexperienced. They dont know how to use a Flash bang, and don't know when to use one. If that had gone off in the "correct" home with the meth lab, the whole area would have exploded.
"St. John said investigators did plenty of homework on the residence before deciding to launch the raid but didn't know children were inside."
Not only didn't they know there were children inside, they also didn't know there was any Meth there either. It's a good thing they did "Plenty of Homework". Imagine if they went in there with no intelligence. AND why didn't they kill a dog, any dog? I thought that was obligatory!
They Get an F on their Homework.
Shhh! Mike you're paying attention to what they are doing...shame on you.
Also, the officer who used the grenade didn't even know that there was a delay on the it. Wouldn't you expect police officers to understand how their stuff works? It's time for cops to be held accountable when they negligently injure people.
It's also time for you to read previously posted comments so you don't repeat what's already been said.
It's perfectly okay to repeat comments.
It's perfectly okay to repeat comments.
It's perfectly okay to repeat comments.
See?
Welcome to the Police State! Better get used to it as these thugs get more and more money from their national overlords: the Federal Government, Democrat or Republican.
Absolutely...it doesn't make a hill of beans difference which party is in control.
It is all about CONTROL.
Obviously the Billings SWAT team needs some intensive training, but they prefer to swagger around like the gun goons that they are.
Say? Where are all the anti-gun loons when you need them to comment on something? Where are all the cries of...it's all the NRA's fault?
The War on (some) Drugs is a complete failure. It has destroyed our rights, made police little more than a military occupying force, and made us the laughingstock of the world--the "Land of the Free" imprisons more people percent-wise than ANY other country, more than Stalin's Gulags. It's destroyed ten times as many lives as drugs themselves could have destroyed.
And it's immoral. After all, who are we to tell someone who does not harm to anyone else what they may put in their bodies? Do you own your own body? Isn't it your right to treat your body responsibly...or not, by YOUR choice?
Look what the War on (some) Drugs has gotten us!
There are over 50,000 SWAT raids per year; if even 1% are "wrong address", that's 500 people terrorized for NOTHING, every year.
95% of SWAT raids are for search or arrest warrants--not barricades, bank robberies, hostage situations. You know--the things they were originally designed for.
These disgusting thugs now get their jollies playing dress-up and using military equipment against good Americans.
Even the ones WITH drugs in their houses are not necessarily violent people. Do you think a retired old man who grows a few pot plants to treat his multiple sclerosis deserves to have an M-16 shoved in his face and have his dogs shot? No? Well it's happened already, and more than once.
This must stop. We're better than this. Americans used to live by the old-fashioned rules: "live and let live"
"he's not bothering anybody, let'em alone"
"no harm, no foul"
"mind your own business"
"nobody's problem but my own"
If a drug user or dealer actually commits a crime that harms someone, or steals something, THEN there's a victim, THEN prosecute them.
But otherwise? No Victim, No Crime
Absolutely...
The sick thing here is that the cops got the RIGHT house, and it was full of INNOCENT people. Using SWAT to execute drug related warrants is standard procedure through most of america now, without any regard to the severity or background of the individuals involved.
If there really had been a "checklist" to determine whether or not swat was required, that data would be as inaccurate as the original report on the house. Shoddy work is NOT acceptable when the job is life and death.
Vicmar75 is obviously an idiot who doesn't read the news. Police regularly raid the wrong houses, it probably happens several times a day across the country. What it really comes down to is cops don't do any real investigating anymore.
They didn't know there were children in the home? I guess that means they didn't watch the house AT ALL, which basically means they didn't do their jobs. How would you like it if cops kicked in your door and lit off a grenade without verifying any facts?
Why do small towns in Montana need a swat team anyway? They don't. Cops knew the job was potentially dangerous when they took it. If they are too big of wimps to just walk up to the door and knock they shouldn't be cops to begin with.
Maybe you shouldn't be doing illegal drugs, and putting your children in danger. I've never ONCE had SWAT at my house. Imagine that. If you put your children in danger, don't blame others if they get hurt. I am very sorry for this child, and I hope Child Protective Services checks out the family.....
You hope CPS checks out a family who has not been charged with any crime? What makes you think anyone in this family had anything to do with illegal drugs?
Would you feel so smug if your house was one of the hundreds raided "mistakenly" every year?
Do you drink? Because THAT was illegal once. Think you deserve a SWAT raid for it?
vicmar...another loon who didn't read the article very well.
There were no drugs, no nasty meth lab (you can smell them blocks away).
If there was a meth lab in the house and the silly cops had entered with their little BOOM BOMB like they did this house...we would be reading the story about a few dead cops.
BOOM!
Leaving aside for the moment the question of whether the flash-bang was appropriate, let's be reasonable here and try to see it from the point of view of a SWAT unit.
Here's an opportunity to kick in someone's front door, rush in with automatic weapons, and point those weapons in the faces of the people inside. And in this case, you KNOW it's women and children inside, so you KNOW they can't hurt you! Think about it: you get to thoroughly dominate, control, and terrorize other people - inside their own home! And when the only difference between this and another boring night out on patrol in Billings freakin' Montana is a few check-boxes on a "threat matrix" form . . . well, I for one think the choice is obvious.
Jail the cops.
"However, the officer didn't realize that there was a delay on the grenade when he tried to detonate it. He dropped it to move onto a new device, St. John said. The grenade fell to the floor and went off near the girl."
Perhaps, in addition to better intel, some training might be in order?
Of course there's a delay. otherwise they would go off in your hand. Broomsticks don't change the flash bang, just its deployment.
Poor kid.
We suspect there's a meth lab inside . . . but we're going to toss in an explosive device anyway.
This. Especially this.
Meth labs routinely explode for no apparent reason. Someone sneezes and the whole house explodes. And a SWAT team shoves an explosive grenade into a house suspected to contain a meth lab? That right there, if anyone but a cop had done it, would have been enough for an attempted murder charge.
SWAT teams are supposedly the best trained officers in the department, given extra training over and above the regular officers. Experts in the use of police equipment. For a SWAT team to be so unfamiliar with how their equipment works, that they would shove a grenade into a meth lab, is appalling.
If that's the best of the department, the average officer there must make Barney Fife look like a super cop.
These "flash bang grenades" are BOMBS originally designed for military use. But if you give cops toys like this to play with, they will be eager to use them.
People have been killed by these bombs before. While there may be some situations where they are appropriate for civilian police work, the routine, obviously careless, and cavalier manner in which some SWAT teams employ these devices for routine, non-violent drug raids is more dangerous to society than the crimes being investigated.
It is only a matter of luck that nobody died.
The incident seems to be more like terrorism than a proper law enforcement response.
That's exactly what a dynamic entry is intended to do. Cause terror and disorient the occupants. Literally scare and confuse them so much they cannot resist.
If terrorism is the use of violence with the goal of causing fear, then quite a few things that law enforcement does would constitute terrorism.
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