Innocent Family Raided by SWAT, Held at Gunpoint After Cops Mistook Hibiscus for Weed

A Pennsylvania couple is suing local police after a SWAT team raided their home and held them at gunpoint for growing hibiscus.

WATCH: Cops Raid Wrong House, Assault Pregnant Woman & Destroy Her Property

Sacramento, CA — Body camera footage has now been released by the Sacramento police department showing the moments leading up to the moment police decided to invade Zityrua Abraham’s apartment. The police threw the pregnant woman to the ground in the process of kicking down the door of the home they believed the suspect they were pursuing had just entered.

As TFTP previously reported she and her family were outside their apartment, and Abraham noticed the police, but all of a sudden they came rushing in. She said the person they were really looking for was in an adjacent building. Nevertheless, she attempted to tell the police that she had an 18-month old child sleeping in the bedroom. However, according to Abraham, they didn’t care.

After one of the officers threw her to the ground, throwing her on her stomach, she began having contractions. “The doctor said the way that I landed, my body twisted the wrong way ’cause my left side hurts, and I landed all right here on my right side,” she said at the time of the incident.

Once officers gained entry into they home, by kicking down the door, they apprehended her mother’s boyfriend. Police officers told her that her mother’s boyfriend looked like a car thief suspect they were pursuing. Her mother’s boyfriend had entered their apartment to get a glass of water just before police stormed in after him.

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Abraham went immediately to local News Channel Fox 40 to decry the treatment she received by those sworn to protect and serve her best interests. According to the news reports, police blamed Abraham for getting in the way. Sgt. Bryce Heinlein reflected on the events of the day telling reporters:

At that point one of the officers grabbed the female by the arm. During that time she fell to the ground.

Abraham scoffs at the notion she somehow fell down on her own accord. She responded:

I have a baby in my stomach, I’m not fixing to just fall or exaggeratedly fall.  I’m not fixing to do anything to harm my son.

When asked if the actions of the officer who allegedly threw her to the ground were appropriate Heinlein said:

So not going to go into what I think. That’s part of the ongoing administrative investigation that’s going on.”

To this day, Abraham maintains her innocence and says the whole home invasion/arrest of her mother’s boyfriend caught her off-guard. She rejects any notion that she and her family are somehow, someway, to blame for what happened when police mistook her mom’s boyfriend for their suspect. She said:

I wasn’t in the way. I was telling them this is my home, trying to figure out what’s going on. I got a 1-year-old that lives here. We wasn’t doing nothing but minding our business that day.

Making matters worse for Abraham, when police entered her apartment they kicked down the door and did not fix it. Luckily, however, neighbors were more helpful than police and actually nailed the frame back together while she was in the hospital.

READ MORE:  SWAT Mistakes Prayer Group for Gun Thieves, Raid Wrong Home, Detain 14yo Girl in Bathroom

“I knew they were going to try to justify this whole thing. Right is right and wrong is wrong and. That was wrong what they did, all the way around,” said Abraham.

As you watch the video below, remember, none of the people involved in this raid had committed a crime and no one was arrested — yet all their lives were put in danger thanks to the blatant incompetence of the police.

SWAT Mistakes Prayer Group for Gun Thieves, Raid Wrong Home, Detain 14yo Girl in Bathroom

Gaithersburg, MD — Guns Loaded? Check… Extra Ammunition? Check… Bullet-proof protective vests? Check… Right home address? Uh oh! In yet another SWAT Team flub, a home has been raided, and its occupants beaten. However, once again, the police went to the wrong address.

The Carroll County Sheriff’s Office in Gaithersburg admits they got it all wrong when they burst into Israel Orellana’s home in Montgomery County. Orellana has the same name as the man police were searching for in a gun theft case. But still, incredibly, Carroll County got a warrant to search the wrong address. Worse yet, the group of people gathered in the home were church goers who were spending the night socializing and praying.

Orellana told reporters, “I thought it was my mom’s friends because sometimes they pray and they start dancing.” But that night, it wasn’t dancing which was disturbing his peace, it was officers of the peace doing so.

“So I get up from my bed and I start walking over to my door. And as I’m opening my door, I make eye contact with the SWAT officer and he pushes up against the door with his shield and he slams me against the wall.” Then, he describes what TFTP has all too often criticized, the charges of resisting arrest to free citizens who feel they’ve done nothing for which they should be arrested. “He starts screaming at me, ‘Stop resisting! Stop resisting!’” while the SWAT team raid continues to go down.

Orellana showed FOX 5 a bruise on his face and scrapes on his arm. He said his hands were tied behind his back and he was taken upstairs to find that his family and his mother’s friends were also detained. He says officers barged in on his 14-year-old sister in the bathroom.

“It was really horrific,” he said. “You feel really helpless during the whole situation. Like you know you’re innocent, you’re telling them you’re innocent, but they just see you as a criminal.”

The raid consisted of two counties working together to effect an arrest of another “Israel Orellana,” who was wanted in the burglary of 20 guns and money stolen from a residence. The police acted on video surveillance they’d acquired from casing the home but even armed with video imagery, the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office still got it wrong. They got a judge to issue a search warrant for Orellana’s home and then requested that Montgomery County police execute it.

READ MORE:  BREAKING: Baltimore Woman Killed, Her 5-yo Son Shot After Police Raid for Traffic Warrants

Both Israel Orellanas live in Gaithersburg and share similar appearances as stated by police who used Orellana’s driver’s license to determine identity.

Colonel Larry Suther told FOX 5 that an internal investigation will be conducted into the egregious error. “We’re going to take a hard look at how we got to that point,” Suther said.

Orellana says he wants the police to be held accountable for their actions, especially since his mother had to be hospitalized for the subsequent panic attack. She’s also battling cancer and currently undergoing treatment.

“She’s undergoing chemo, so her medicine puts her at high-risk of a heart attack…And when she had the panic attack, it was very serious to all of us,” he said. “This isn’t really about money to me. There needs to be action taken. People need to be held responsible, and they need to do a better job,” he emphasized again.

“Like, it’s just that plain and simple. They can’t be breaking into people’s houses just because I have the same name and I look like someone,” he concluded.

We at The Free Thought Project have been chronicling the actions of the Police State which acts with impunity and refuses to pay for damages for invalid incursions such as the one described in the aforementioned story.

The Carroll County Sheriff’s Office issued the following statement, which, by the way, makes no mention of any promise to pay for any damages caused by the lawless home invasion.

The Carroll County Sheriff’s Office, following investigative leads in a case where numerous guns had been stolen from a residence in Carroll County, obtained search warrants for a residence in Montgomery County. Unfortunately, the suspect shared the same name and general location as an unrelated person, and investigators initially went to the unrelated persons address.

So, once again, as evidenced in the thoughtlessly prepared statement, the police are again blaming the victims, in no uncertain terms, that he was targeted because he had the same name, lived in the same general area as the suspect, and may have shared some type of similar appearance. Yes, that sounds a lot like racial profiling. Nice work men! Thank you for your service, now go fix Mr. Orellana’s home and pay for him and his mother’s medical bills.