Police Raid Supposed Meth Lab And Burn 12yo Girl With Flash Grenade - Intel Was Wrong

Excessive Force In Action

Billings, Montana police say the 6 am raid they conducted in October 2012 was part of an investigation into a suspected meth lab. But there was no meth lab. And the 12-year-old daughter of Jackie Fasching suffered severe burns after the SWAT team used a broomstick to drop a flash grenade through a window into a bedroom where the girl and her sister were sleeping.


Police Chief Rich St. John told the paper, “It was totally unforeseen, totally unplanned and extremely regrettable. We certainly did not want a juvenile, or anyone else for that matter, to get injured.”


Fasching wasn’t satisfied with that explanation. “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.” Fasching’s husband, who suffers from congenital heart disease and liver failure, was in fact attempting to open the door to let the cops in just as they knocked it down.

Full Article at Huff Post

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Flash Grenade A Meth Lab? - Cops Know Meth Labs Explode Right?

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."

Full Article at Missoulian