TOLEDO, Ohio — At approximately 4:50 p.m the night of Dec. 3, a home in Toledo became the site of a hostile encounter between Toledo police and a local family, with TPD entering the home with guns drawn for approximately six minutes, searching the residence and arresting multiple children, all while the mom was outside.
"[The] mom came home to see police officers all in her house without a search warrant, they were told that someone had flagged them down, that they had seen some kids with guns," said Gerald Rose, the founder of New Order, a national human rights organization now representing the family who wishes to remain anonymous.
They've teamed up with the Cochran law firm of Detroit to try to unravel the legality of what occurred and, if needed, give the family legal representation.
"Our role is going to be to investigate this issue, do some fact seeking and see what the circumstances were that led the officers to the home, and to help the family in making a decision as to whether or not these officers acted reasonably," said James King, the senior attorney from the Cochran firm.
According to TPD, the officers were in pursuit of two young suspects who had been seen reaching into their pockets and waistbands, indicating they were possibly carrying weapons.
"So I had a 300 flag me down, that said they had guns out here right now, flashing them. Soon as we came from the alley, they ran came all the way through the alley back into the house," said one of the police officers in the bodycam footage released by TPD.
With the suspects inside, the officers came to the door, and seeing the person they pursued inside, they proceeded to enter the home.
Normally, a police officer can't enter a residence without a warrant, but there are exceptions, including hot pursuits.
According to Cornell Law's Legal Information Institute, "a hot pursuit is an exception to the general rule that police officers need an arrest warrant before they can enter a home to make an arrest. If a felony has occurred and an officer has chased a suspect to a private house, the officer can forcibly enter the house in order to prevent the suspect from escaping or hiding or destroying evidence."
However, it's not clear whether police were responding to a crime or simply responding to kids reaching into their waistbands, opening up the question of whether or not this was a justified hot pursuit.
Four minutes into TPD entering the home, bodycam footage shows an officer claiming to have found a .22 caliber pistol bullet on one of the children's beds and the officers begin to pull back and call for a search warrant.
At this point, the children have all been rounded up in the living room, cuffed, on the couch and forced to lay on the floor, screaming and crying.
As for what's next, King says they're working now to determine if the officers truly did have the right to enter the home, and secondly if their behavior was egregious or necessary before they can determine how to proceed.
"If we do in fact find that their rights have been violated and that there's an actionable claim that we can bring forward, we plan to do so," said King.
WTOL 11 requested comment from the Toledo Police Department. A spokesperson responded by email with the following: "Officers pursued two suspects on foot while they were reaching into their pockets and waistbands, indicting a possible weapon. The suspects ran into the home, and since officer did not lose sight of them and were close behind, officers were able to pursue them into the home under hot pursuit. Once at the home, officers stopped at the threshold of the doorway as they lost sight of their suspects. Once one of the suspects comes down the stairs, the officer goes upstairs to arrest him. While upstairs officers see a .22 caliber round in plain view. At this point they protect the crime scene and apply for a search warrant."
UPDATE:
On Dec. 15, WTOL 11 reporter Michael Sandlin walked the streets of the north Toledo neighborhood where the incident took place, just off Manhattan Boulevard, to try and get a sense of the level of crime in the area and receive updates from neighbors.
Everyone WTOL 11 spoke to was incredibly reluctant to speak, both on camera and off.
The first woman we spoke to wanted to talk, but her family shut it down quickly because they said they had "fear of retaliation."
As we continued through the neighborhood knocking on doors, we heard similar responses from other people, when addressing the fear of crime and violence.
Another woman told our crew that multiple neighbors have cameras to try and keep themselves safe from neighborhood crime.
When asked if she had witnessed crimes happening on camera, she said no, but clarified that even if she did she would be in danger if she shared it with our reporter.
As our crew was finishing walking through the neighborhood our reporter was told by one man that he was risking his life by asking questions.