Family traumatized after RCMP mistakenly raid their home
Posted October 10, 2010 8:48 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
PORT COQUITLAM (NEWS1130) – A family is prepared to file a complaint over what they consider heavy handed police tactics after Mounties raided their home on Saturday.
Caerau McNabb and three family members were preparing Thanksgiving dinner when their Port Coquitlam home was suddenly surrounded by officers who told them to walk out of the house with their arms up. They were then told to lie on the ground, face down.
McNabb says it was a humiliating scenario, especially for her ailing 60-year-old mother. “She got down and being in an upset state that she was, she was crying and I was trying to comfort her, to which I was told to shut up and stop talking and had a gun pointed at me.”
She says they were forced to stay on the ground in pouring rain for a half hour, while neighbours looked on.
It turns out police had received a call of about a woman being held at gunpoint at that address, but it appears it might have been just a prank.
“It was a matter of being at the wrong place at the wrong time. Our officers at the scene offered the services of our Victim Services program, because they did appear shaken up after the incident,” says Coquitlam RCMP’s Bert Paquet, who acknowledges the situation was extremely upsetting for the family.
He explains that because the officers had to assume someone had a gun, they had to take control of the home and everyone in it, until they were sure no one was in danger.