Houston deputies reportedly terrified an innocent family last week when they barged through the front door of the wrong home to serve an arrest warrant.
Louis Rodriguez, a retired police officer, told the local ABC affiliate he was shocked by the unprofessional aggression of deputies at the Harris County Sheriff’s Office who came banging on his door on Sept. 1.
“[They were] out of control yelling, demanding, threatening they wanted to come in. I wasn’t sure they were police officers at the time,” he said in an interview with a station.
Both Rodriguez and his son said they tried to inform the deputies that they had the wrong home as they filmed part of the encounter.
“Sir, you have the wrong house,” Rodriguez’s son called out to the deputies in the video.
Rodriguez said he added that he was a former cop and asked to see the warrant.
But the deputies instead quickly resorted to using a battering ram to break through the front door and yank him and his son out of the house, Rodriguez said.
“(They) manhandled myself and my son and brought us outside. (Then) they finally realized the mistake they made,” he said.
The sheriff’s office apologized and said they were replacing the front door in a statement to ABC13.
“Deputies attempting to execute an arrest warrant on Sept. 1 mistakenly approached the wrong home in the 21100 block of Royal Villa Drive and damaged the front door,” the office said.
“Deputies subsequently realized they made a mistake and the sheriff’s office arranged to have the door replaced. The sheriff’s office regrets the mistake and the incident is under review.”
A captain at the scene that day did apologize to Rodriguez. But Rodriguez told the station that the apology “didn’t suffice” and that he was worried that other residents could experience a similar situation.
“I’d hate for this to happen to any family in Harris County,” he said.
