UPDATE (07/31/08) -- Read the statement R.T. Rybak sent to Minneapolis City Councilmembers.
Mayor: SWAT Award Sends Wrong Message
Last night we reported Minneapolis SWAT team officers received medals for their bravery in a botched raid at an innocent family's home. The report must have struck a nerve with a lot of people; we have received many e-mails opposed to the awards, and it was the top story viewed all day on our Web site.
The raid happened a week before Christmas. Fearing for his family, Vang Khang grabbed his shotgun when he heard intruders breaking into his home on Logan Avenue in North Minneapolis. His terrified wife called 911.
Turns out the "intruders" were not robbers — but were members of the MPD SWAT team looking for guns supposedly belonging to a gang member. Lots of gunfire exploded in the house as Khang and the officers fired their weapons. It's a miracle none of the officers, children or their parents was injured. Two days later, Chief Tim Dolan personally apologized to the Khang family, saying mistakes were made.
More than seven months later, no one has been held accountable for officers raiding the wrong house or for giving police bad information. Chief Dolan told me the SWAT team was cleared for its role in the raid. However, an internal review is still under way, looking into how the officers and supervisors who work for the MPD's Violent Offenders Task Force handled the front end of the case that led to the raid.
The raid happened after a woman went to police claiming she lived at the Khangs' address on Logan Avenue with her boyfriend and that he had several guns in the basement of that house. That was not true. (The Khangs had lived at the house since it was built four years ago.) She also claimed he threatened to shoot her.
Turned out she also gave police a false name, claiming to be a "Michelle Henderson." Her real name: Morgan Ashley Young. Our I-Team investigation found Young was wanted under her real name on felony prostitution charges in Dodge County, Minnesota. Young's former boyfriend was arrested and charged with assault and weapons possession. (He was at another house police searched earlier in the night of the botched raid, along with three guns. He insisted he had never lived at the Khangs' where Young told police they lived. )
NOTE: The chief stated at the award ceremony that the SWAT team "was given the mission
to enter the dwelling of a Rolling 60s gang member in north Minneapolis.
The gang member stated he would never go back to prison and would not be taken
alive." The fact is that gang member was already behind bars since officers from
the Violent Offenders Task Force had arrested him six hours earlier.
Young disappeared and charges were later dropped against the former boyfriend. He denied the allegations and said Young was mad at him for kicking her out of his house earlier that day.
The Khang family was outraged when they learned yesterday the officers who raided their house had been honored by the police department. Their attorney, Tom Heffelfinger, called the awards an effort by police leaders to "sanitize" police actions last December. Heffelfinger says the children are still traumatized by the raid and the parents plan to file a lawsuit against the city.
Chief Dolan defended the awards saying, "The officers put themselves in harm's way. They were shot and shot at and deserved to be recognized."
It will be eight months on August 16th since that terrible night in December. Each month I check with the supervisor of the MPD Internal Affairs Unit for an update on when we might be able to report the outcome of the investigation of the botched raid. The last I heard the case was on its way to Assistant Chief Sharon Lubinksi's desk for review. I will keep you posted when I finally have something to report. Don't hold your breath. If the VOTF officers are cleared like the SWAT officers, we will not be able to learn any details of how police officials they reached that decision.
If the officers are found to have violated department policies or any other wrongdoing, we will have the details only after the case has gone through all the procedural steps
allowed officers under the law and their contract.
We will also keep you posted if any charges are ever filed against the woman who police say gave them the bad information that could have cost them and the Khang family their lives. The last we heard, Dodge County was still looking for Morgan Ashley Young on the felony prostitution charges.
Extended Video With Heffelfinger On SWAT Awards
Chief Dolan's Comments At SWAT Award Ceremony
I-TEAM: Raid Tipster Gave Police Wrong Name
I-TEAM: Investigating Police Raid At Wrong House
I-TEAM: 911 Tapes From Police Raid At Wrong House
