SWAT team raided wrong home, causing $16,000 in damages: Lawsuit

A SWAT team raided the wrong home in South Bend, Indiana, causing over $16,000 worth of damages, according to a lawsuit filed Friday.

The Institute for Justice filed a lawsuit on behalf of South Bend resident Amy Hadley against local law enforcement after authorities mistakenly raided her home, shattering windows and ransacking her family’s belongings, the complaint stated.

In June 2022, a SWAT team with the South Bend Police Department and the St. Joseph County Police Department surrounded Hadley’s home, misidentifying it as the location where a fugitive was hiding.

Hadley’s then-15-year-old son, Noah, was the only person home during the raid.

“I look outside and I see everybody pointing their guns at me,” Noah explained in a video released by the Institute for Justice.

As the boy exited the home with his hands up, one officer stated, “That’s not him. That’s a kid,” according to police bodycam footage.

Even though Noah was not the individual authorities were searching for, he was handcuffed and transported to the police station anyway, according to the lawsuit.

For approximately the next hour, the SWAT team yelled outside the home for the fugitive to come out. Authorities “launched dozens of tear gas grenades into the house, destroyed the security cameras, shattered windows, punched holes in walls, ransacked furniture and closets, tore down a panel and fan in a bathroom,” Hadley’s complaint read.

Family photos, electronics, and furniture were allegedly destroyed. Police bodycam footage shared by the Institute for Justice showed Hadley’s home in ruins. While the home was being ransacked, Hadley and her daughter, Kayla, watched the commotion from down the street and attempted to plead with authorities that they had the wrong residence.

After they were allowed to return to their home, Hadley stated that the residual fumes from the tear gas caused coughing and vomiting.

“We had to sleep in the car. We slept in the car in our driveway. It took about three days to actually go into the house,” Hadley claimed.

The Institute for Justice stated, “When the dust settled, the house was uninhabitable for days. Tear gas saturated everything, glass filled the beds, windows and walls were shattered and mangled.”

The police believed then-30-year-old John Parnell Thomas was inside the residence after they tracked his Facebook usage and determined the fugitive was using the home’s internet connection. Thomas was wanted on multiple warrants.

Hadley insisted that neither she nor her family had any connection to the fugitive, and he never entered their residence.

Thomas was arrested days later on the other side of town.

Hadley’s requests for compensation have gone unanswered, and her insurance did not cover all the damage. The lawsuit seeks to cover the estimated $16,000 in damages caused by the raid.

“That’s both unfair and unconstitutional,” the Institute for Justice said. “The local governments in this case determined that the public benefit of trying to apprehend a fugitive outweighed the costs of damaging Amy’s property in the process. That was their decision to make, but they must pay for it.”

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