By TEREASA NIMS
Sunday-Times Newspapers
WYANDOTTE – A 16-year-old girl claims the city’s SWAT unit overreacted on April 4, when they burst into her house and threw a grenade in the room she and her 8-year-old brother were in.
“They came in, threw a bomb, and I ran upstairs and got on the floor,” the teen said. “I was on the ground not looking at them.
“It wasn’t right.”
Wyandotte Police Chief Daniel Grant said the team executed a warrant at the house — looking for a .40-caliber handgun reported stolen — but once inside said they found no need to use additional force. He said SWAT deployed a percussion grenade, meant as a diversionary devise.
Grant said in his 20 years of overseeing SWAT, he believes the members acted appropriately. He said he didn’t enter the house, but was outside overseeing the event.
The incident stemmed from an event the day earlier when the teen’s dad was installing a car stereo for a man at their house in the 700 block of Plumb Street.
David Lewis, who was installing the stereo, went inside the Plumb Street house with the customer. When they went back outside, the car doors were open. After shutting the door, the pair went back inside the house.
When they returned outside, the doors were once again open. That’s when the customer noticed his handgun missing.
According to the police report, the customer accused Lewis of taking the gun, which Grant said was not found in the house.
The teen, however, said it has been a nightmare. She said friends and students at school are saying her house is a meth lab and then she has to tell them the story.
“None of my friends can come over,” she said. “Life was normal before this happened.”
Her grandfather, Russell Lewis, also of Wyandotte, said the incident frustrates him. He said he is a disabled vet and recently had a heart attack.
“This was just an excessive use of force,” Russell Lewis said.