Kansas City Police have announced an internal investigation into the raid that took place at the home of JeTuan Jones last month. The officers had a warrant for the home, signed by a Jackson County judge. But it was not a “no knock” warrant, something the police specifically have to request and the judge has to specifically grant. Those types of warrants are usually saved for the most extreme cases or in instances where there is a danger in announcing their presence beforehand.

In this case the police state they did announce their presence, though they didn’t knock. When a twenty-four year old woman in the home held keys up as if to indicate she would unlock the storm door, police shouted at her to get down and would eventually push her out of the way to break through the storm door and throw a flash-grenade into the home.

The police weren’t looking for an armed and dangerous suspect--they were looking for a cell phone. It had originally belonged to a murder victim but had been most recently been used by a young man, the brother of JeTaun Jones. To make the raid even more questionable, the young man wasn’t living at the house in South Kansas City, he was actually in police custody at the time of the raid.

When the police threw their flash-grenade, it rolled to the back of the house and caught the drapes on fire. They allegedly stormed in, cuffing the 24 year old and a 68 year old woman. They even tried to get Jones’ 84 year old bedridden mother up and out of the bed. One can only imagine how the 2 year old child felt at the sight of the SWAT team cuffing her family and the curtains burning. 

So, did the cops tear apart the house in search of this highly dangerous phone? No. They realized their error and left without searching. Oddly enough, they would find the phone at another location, the location where Jones’ brother was actually living before his arrest. 

While opening an investigation into the raid is a step in the right direction, a lack of media attention on this case thus far is troublesome. Don't allow the investigation to take place behind closed doors--join others here at Change.org in demanding the Kansas City police share their findings with the public and use this raid as a teaching point, to prevent it from happening again.

Photo Credit: sinisterbluebox